It's Monday night, only 30-odd country-rock acolytes have turned out at the Barfly, and there's a metal fence between them and the band. Eileen Rose is undeterred, however. She has a voice that could deflect bullets, bags of charisma and a band that cook up a most ferocious storm. Her latest album, At the Tables, is another fine claim to join the first class of American female country-rock singer-songwriters. While she pulls rock-chick poses on the album cover, in person she veers towards neither the corny extreme of that style, nor the opposite of the winsome acoustic girly.

This is due to various factors, not least of which is her stunning voice. The closest comparisons are probably Neko Case (without the bunny-boiling) and Maria McKee (without the MOR). She's even had a song in a Hollywood buddy movie soundtrack (The Rookie). Although Shining is not her strongest song, it's far more palatable than Show Me Heaven.

The overall mood is rocking and upbeat – there are country elements in her vocal inflections, the instrumentation (one of the two electric guitarists doubles on pedal-steel), and in the chord progressions of some numbers like the 'new song' which, although they claim only to have have played it three or four times, already thunders along on all cylinders. There are really only two gentle songs - one dedicated to her mother which goes un-named, and prompts her to remark at the end that she was 'a little taken'. As were we. Overall though, the music is of the type to have you on your feet rather than sobbing into your rye.

The latter factor is largely thanks to her band, whom she rightly describes as 'the best I've ever played with'. It's impossible not to give prominence to the phenomenal guitar of Rich Gilbert. If every mother's son in Nashville really was born to be a guitar picker, and if they are all as good as this, then any person with musical aspirations had better think twice about moving there. But it's the overall chemistry which they share which gives the music wheels. The rapport, including pretending to leave the stage rather than go through the 'return for encore' routine, is excellent.

Scale-wise, it's a step up from her last Cambridge gig, a solo acoustic set at Kami's restaurant. It's just a shame that her profile here isn't a little higher.

Writer: Tom Conway

www.eileenrose.com

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