Jake Bugg
Factory Theatre, Marrickville, April 19


★★★½

Anybody who had not heard Jake Bugg's speaking voice before this solo acoustic show was in for a surprise.

As he politely rebuffed the shouted requests that began from after opener How Soon the Dawn – "I think I'll pick the songs, OK mate?" – he was still the boy from the Nottingham council estate.

But when the 24-year-old opened his mouth to sing, there emerged a keening, nasally creature from somewhere between the American prairie and the moorlands near his English hometown.

Knowing the records did not diminish the surprise of hearing Bugg's vocals live. One could try and name the antecedents – Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, all toking from a helium balloon – but in truth there's nothing else like it out there.

Bugg has fine songs to marry to it, even if they still reflect a limited world view. But hanging out with the lads, smoking weed and dreaming of escape became first-person thrill rides on tracks such as Seen It All and Trouble Town.