Erinn Williams

Erinn Williams sail into Newcastle for her European tour on the back of the stormy weather we've been experiencing. Promoting her latest sublime album, Digging In the Dirt, the singer-songwriter with a background in opera played a flawless set to an appreciative Cumberland Arms crowd. The night, hosted by North East promoters The Killing Suite, was one of the most laidback and enjoyable gigs I've been to in a long time.

With excellent support from Northumberland-born Paul Jeans, aka Jeans goes Pop!, and Manchester's latest indie-pop outfit The 1,2,3,4s, the night effortlessly glided along to Montana-born Erinn's lilting vocals. Her acoustic guitar was complemented by a range of electronic wizardry. Williams' latest album has been described as being like every angst-ridden teenage girl's diary. Unrequited love, stolen moments, loneliness and pain are the running themes. As forlorn and melancholic as that may sound, the poetic delivery of her tone-perfect songs left the audience in awe. Tracks such as Delicate, Inch By Inch, Darker Shade of Blue and Dirty have lyrics which weave their way around a room, painting a rich picture in the listeners' minds before building into bittersweet crescendos. It would be easy to compare Erinn's voice to the soothing tones of Beth Orton or the high-pitched warbling of Kate Bush, but she possesses a whispery edge all of her own. The show ended with Indigo ? a beautifully-crafted, heart-lifting song, which highlights everything that's good about Erinn's amazing voice. The American might have arrived in the middle of heavy storms, but she left on a sweet breeze of approval.