CAN you have great music without a great setting? On the strength of last Saturday night’s living room concert, if you nail the atmosphere and sound, then artists respond.

Kathryn Williams is a Mercury-nominated artist, a lesser known jewel in our songwriting firmament. Like her friend Tom McRae, her songs are masterclasses in sad-eyed tales. Literate and painstakingly constructed, they are subtle but beguiling if you pay attention.

Her earthy, vulnerable persona invites the audience to believe her. Williams’s influences and subjects are eclectic, hard to pigeon hole and the better for that.

Her co-headliner, Michele Stodart, has also tasted success with The Magic Numbers but is now also forging a reputation on her own. Stodart’s sparkling personality and upbeat style were the shining centre of the evening. Previewing songs from her forthcoming record Pieces, she has a seemingly endless seam of "woman wronged" material. Her distinctive vocal, recalling both Janis Joplin and Samantha Crain, meant she never sounded beaten.

Elegant opener Astrid Williamson, once of Goya Dress, provided a further foil. The feminine trio created a warm, feminine atmosphere, sometimes at the expense of their male piano player, who wisely took on a low profile role.

While both Williams and Stodart have strong back catalogues, neither could be said to have the kind of songs that work best solo and unadorned. This was where the magic happened; the contrasts between the performers’ personalities and the way they supported each other took the originals, and the sell-out crowd, into a different place, elevating the concert out of the ordinary.

Williams’s panic attack in song, Underground, was a highlight, as was Stodart’s as-yet-untitled encore, where the enjoyment was positively irresistible.

Paul Rhodes