Concert review: Kate Doubleday Trio

THE RSPB centre at Loch Garten, a popular visitor attraction, provided an intimate and atmospheric setting for this first venture into using the building for a concert, with the novelty of seeing the artists almost upstaged by the resident osprey pair's second chick dithering over making his overdue inaugural flight (he didn't).

A couple of Kate Doubleday's songs took birds as their subject, and several more worked them into the fabric of her poetic narratives, along with wildflowers. That focus on nature sat well in the context, while other songs drew equally directly on her own experiences, notably watching her daughter grow.

She was accompanied by Dan Wilkins on guitar and kora (the West African harp provided an evocative texture in the music) and Trevor Lines on a range of string instruments, taking in guitar, acoustic bass guitar, ukulele, tenor guitar and a dulcimer. The setting allowed them to play entirely without amplification to good effect, and Doubleday would have added her flute, had she remembered to bring it.