TUESDAY. Early January. Cold as Roy Keane's eyes. Post-Christmas blues are still nagging, still blue. This was not a night for going out and not the best of times to be playing a gig.

Welcome to York, Dawn Landes, American singer-songwriter, raised in Louisville, resident in New York, and now on a five-date British and Irish tour, showcasing last year's post-divorce album, Bluebird, and previewing next month's Dawn Landes& The Kentuckians' Covers EP of Springsteen, Petty, Parton, Roxy Music and Mancini songs.

The Kentuckians were not with her, and Fibbers has known busier nights on the door, but the diehards had gathered for the new Dawn.

She was dressed in New York black and played sparse acoustic guitar; not the warmest of portents and it was always going to take a while to break the ice, to establish a rapport with stories and banter, as such quiet occasions demand.

She began with three numbers off Bluebird, the apt Try To Make A Fire Burn Again, Oh Brother and Lullaby For Tony, then heightened the melancholia in 2008's Dig Me A Hole, Bluebird and an exquisite cover of Moon River, a song she first heard when dancing in an Andy Williams winter show.

Soon to take part in a Johnny Mercer songwriting residency to write her first musical about an Atlantic oarswoman, she trailered one new number, Dear Heart, much in the vein of her other works, and she remains a songwriter with stronger lyrics than tunes.

She played the best, Straight Lines, Bodyguard and Drive, but truthfully covers of Springsteen's Atlantic City and Parton's Longer Than Always were superior.