It was back to Manchester’s wonderful little venue, Band On The Wall, that I travelled to to catch my first live performance glimpse of Abigail Washburn. As I walked through the door there she was arranging a display of her CDs in the box office window. We exchanged greetings and I wondered how many of those £10 CDs she would shift after her performance which I discovered would be split by a booze-break in the middle.

I traversed the eating/drinking area and entered the performance section to find many of the seats in front of the stage already occupied with any vacant ones snapped up quickly (including the upstairs gallery area). By the start of the show at 8:15 it was standing room only and I began to wonder how this unknown American talent had generated so much interest… Perhaps people have been listening to our radio shows and reading our reviews…

For this tour Washburn was accompanied by new album collaborator Kai Welch - multi-instrumentalist, writer, producer, singer - hell, he’s a one-man music industry! He took his place behind a portable keyboard while Washburn picked up one of her three Clawhammer banjos to start the show with the eerie opening to her album. Then it was into the title track ‘City Of Refuge’ - one of my favourite songs and performances of 2011. Now if the audience had taken a punt on attending this show, by the end of this song they would have been congratulating themselves for making such a wise choice. Just like the album, this represented a startling show opening with fine, understated vocals and some lovely instrumental play.

The gorgeous ‘Bring Me My Queen’ was next and it became clear that during this 90-minute show the full album would be played punctuated perhaps by some older favourites. Sure enough ‘Chains’ from the album was next followed by ‘Last Train’ before Washburn and Kai decided to go Gospel with a beautiful rendition of ‘Key To The Kingdom’. Then it was old-time American folk with Washburn adding period dancing to the mix which was both competent and comical, while cementing that invaluable bond between performer and audience.

At an early point in the show Welch apologised in advance for removing his socks after a spell at the venue’s grand piano…Washburn’s performance was spellbinding and the interaction between the two players was magical and natural. Due to a late show start I had to leave during the booze-break, however, I had seen enough to confirm that both the album and performer are very special indeed.