Frances McKee, The Hug and Pint, Glasgow ***

Vaselines frontwoman Frances McKee is more than prepared to give an audience what she doesn’t want and what (she thinks) they don’t want – namely, a Vaselines song she claims to hate and a quirky cover she has performed to some bemusement for years.

Mostly, however, her current solo tour has been an opportunity to play a batch of fragile, haunting indie folk songs on some unfiltered topics – having sex dreams about someone you shouldn’t, hearing ghosts – written during her first pregnancy 22 years ago.

Her son was in the audience listening with forbearance while his younger sister, the unflappable Pippin, was on stage, accompanying her mum on piano and complementing McKee’s delicate Jane Birkin-like breathiness with grounding alto harmonies, which lent the songs a quality of ancient conversation.

The One Made For Me could have been unearthed from some sealed folk vault but in McKee’s hands it was a straight-talking get-the-message kiss-off, followed by one chord wonder Are You Scared To Be Alone and a more belligerent protest song with melodica accompaniment from Pippin, who later stepped up to perform a few of her own songs, cast in a similar style and performed with a modest assurance, plus a simpatico cover of Wicked Game. “She’s the talent now,” quipped McKee, noting the more vocal response from the audience.

McKee’s choice of cover was the odd earworm Uncle Feedle, a spindly ode from classic kids’ TV show Bagpuss, though her rendition collapsed after a few attempts when she forgot the words. She was on safer ground all round with a couple of Vaselines’ songs – Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam, famously covered by Nirvana on their MTV Unplugged album, and Molly's Lips, performed with its all-important cheeky bicycle horn honk.

Music review: Frances McKee, The Hug and Pint, Glasgow