CANADIAN-BORN Lindi Ortega enjoyed a soldout gig when she made her North-East debut at Cluny 2.

After gaining national coverage and praise for her London shows, people craved to come and see for themselves what all the fuss was about.

Ortega’s passion is for having a good time on stage and getting to do what she dreamed of as a child as she listened to the records of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn – and that was evident throughout.

Her bubbly and at times rebellious nature showed as she laid claim to the stage.

As you have musical flavours of the above welded together with cow punk, there were occasions when I detected serious comparisons to fellow Canadian kd lang as she was in the 1980s.

Ortega may have topped the bill support act, but keyboardplaying singer-songwriter Tom Hickox, backed by multiinstrumentalist (electric, slide guitar) Justin Quinn was not short of his own following on his rare venture to the area.

His dark, with hints of Leonard Cohen-ish, songs were thankfully tempered with a little light.

One of these spoke of a prisoner of war ship back in the Second World War, and how a surviving member surfaced years later in a small Midlands pub.

As for the entertaining Oretega, she won favour with her big songs Tin Star, Ashes and songs from her Cigarettes And Truck Stops album as her country roots showed.

On the negative side, her cranked-up version of Hank Williams’ emotional ballad I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry left me cold, as the intimate hearttugging feel of the song was lost.

Otherwise, the audience members were already thinking of the next time they would get to see her, and it couldn’t come soon enough.

Maurice Hope