Concert review: Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne

IN between his work with Lau, with Drever, McCusker, Woomble, and his solo career, the much-garlanded singer/guitarist Kris Drever also enjoys an occasional duo partnership with Irish-born, Edinburgh-based banjo star amonn Coyne, as enshrined on their gorgeous 2007 album Honk Toot Suite.

That "enjoys" is the apposite word was firmly underlined by the pair's relaxed, supple, musical interplay and warm banter at this West End Festival gig: rarely will you witness virtuosity worn so lightly.

One thing Coyne obviously enjoys is the chance to pit his picking skills on tenor guitar as well as banjo against Drever's six-string fingerwork, varying the sonic palette both in instrumental sets drawn from that duo recording, whose richly interlocked melodies, chords, colours and grooves were enlivened by newly wrought variations, and in the accompaniment to songs from Drever's Lau and solo repertoire.

Both individual numbers and the set-list as a whole encompassed a wealth of dynamic diversity, from the insouciant, jazz-tinged swing of Lakeside Barndances to the rollicking drive of The House Jigs; from Drever's soulfully forthright cover of Phil Colclough's The Call and the Answer to his own wistful waltz-time ballad, Mark the Hard Earth.

An extra, perfectly complementary treat was the unscheduled support slot from Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller, displaying their radiantly spine-tingling vocal harmonies in another well-chosen selection of traditional and contemporary material, of which highlights included the poignant a cappella opener, Buttermilk Hill, and David Francey's gently uplifting Saints and Sinners.