THE last time Eastbourne singer-songwriter David Ford was in this vicinity, he was disturbing the Saturday afternoon calm of Pocklington's Platform Festival at The Old Station in July with his remarkable, brutal solo rendition of State Of The Union.

He returns to Yorkshire in very different surroundings on Sunday night, sharing the 7.30pm bill at Phil Grainger's latest By Candlelight concert with University of York-educated folk and trance singer-songwriter Jess Morgan.

Grainger, Gobbledigook theatre director and a sweet-toned singer in his own right, runs By Candlelight as a series of gigs in unconventional York locations, bringing together local and national artists. The venues are secret until you purchase your ticket, and tickets are very limited for each event, but What's On can reveal this Sunday's spot will be York Guildhall.

Grainger has a track record for bringing Ford to Yorkshire, having invited him to a festival he ran in Easingwold's Galtres Centre, and Ford was happy to oblige.

"It was very straightforward. He just wrote to me and asked if I'd do it; I've known Phil since I did my band shows in Easingwold, and I already had an idea for a show because my first album [I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused] is ten years old this month, so I've decided to do a few shows to mark the anniversary," says David.

"I'm thinking of blasting straight into the record. I'll probably do two sets, the album in track order, in the first; then what you might call 'the greatest hits' in the second."

Ford will perform solo in York, whereas he will play with a seven-piece line-up at his London show on October 24 at Bush Hall.

"I've been in contact with the musicians from the record; none of them are musicans now, but to be honest, they weren't musicians then! They were my best mates who I played with; they now have their families and their mortgages, but for two nights, South Woodchester and London, we're going to re-create those songs together again," says David.

"It's good to be re-discovering those songs, written when they were in their mid-20s. living in house-shares with their mates. Now they're living with wives, girlfriends and kids, so we see a lot less of each other.

"If I had a gig tebn years ago, I'd call up mates at a week's notice to see who could do it. Now I don't even ask because they all have full-time jobs, so it'll be nice to get together with some rose-tinted memories of the past.

"It's lovely to be doing this as a band of brothers, rather than my days in Easyworld, which was more a marriage of convenience."

As David looks back at his songs recorded in his home studio a decade ago, he says: "They are something of a time capsule of me at that age. A lot has changed for me personally. I was single when I wrote those songs but married very shortly afterwards, and we're now as settled as we can be.

"At the time of writing the record, I was literally just writing songs for no reason. I didn't have a career or a record label or any plan for the future.

"Having been in a band previously for years and shackled to that, I was now writing songs with a liberation that I loved. I felt I knew how to write songs after escaping from the restraints of the band.

"I wrote so many songs in a year and picked nine that were entirely my choice with no outside input."

On Sunday, David will roll out such ferociously candid favourites as State Of The Union and Cheer Up (You Miserable ****), while applying his trademark loop effects and tipping his hat to an album that has matured like wine, the withering confined to the wit.

"My voice is deeper now, but that's deliberate to an extent because the music I liked back then - Jeff Buckley - I' stopped listening to, and I started listening to Tom Waits instead," he says.

David Ford and Jess Morgan By Candlelight, York Guildhall, Sunday at 7.30pm. Tickets: £12 at musicglue.com