Although Karyn Black is feted in country circles for her album Beneath the Sheltering Sky, this performance was an object lesson in the importance of being prepared. The sight of her guitarist and bass player squinting at chord changes written on a piece of paper while Black nervously strummed the introduction to the next song scarcely inspired confidence. Apparently they'd had three days' rehearsal, but it didn't seem to have helped much since Black spent most of the show wearing an expression of weary perplexity.

When she was searching for pathos the performance descended into farce, as her ham-fisted drummer blundered about during the quiet bits. Every time the tempo was upped a few notches, guitarist Bobby Cochrane took a warp-speed solo. A shame for Karyn, obviously, who did drop the occasional hint that she might be a decent songwriter. Crystal Clear was agreeably melodic if over-sensitive, while the band managed to scrape together a semblance of togetherness during Beneath the Sheltering Sky itself.

It was difficult to see why Black gets filed under country rather than folk. Like the Wild Seas fits squarely into the latter category, as do Black's questionable excursions into cod-Irish jiggery. This wasn't the sort of performance to make you want to investigate any further.