@ Summerhall, Edinburgh, on Wed 6 May 2015

Cathartic confessions, black comedy and virtuoso acoustic guitar – these are the stock-in-trade of Glaswegian musician RM Hubbert, who tonight keeps his audience in rapt adulation in the latest Nothing Ever Happens Here… gig at Summerhall.

Support acts Tisso Lake and Lipsync For A Lullaby have set a sombre tone to start the evening. The former, led by guitarist Ian Humberstone, offer a slow, ethereal sound hovering somewhere between Bill Callahan and Vini Reilly, while the latter are a highly talented (but rubbishly named) string trio, whose furious intensity – lightning fast bow work and strained singing – is almost certainly enthralling in the right setting, but perhaps a little too much for this May evening.

Hubbert himself though, for all that his set deals with deep personal trauma, actually lightens the mood; his self-deprecating humour immediately bonds him to his audience. He plays intricate, rhythmic acoustic guitar in a distinctive style – West Coast Scottish flamenco, if there can be such a thing. The studious introspection of his sometime collaborators Alasdair Roberts and Aidan Moffat is much in evidence too, particularly in his vocals.

For those who only know his beautiful but reflective recorded output, the darkness of its origin may be discomfiting. He doesn’t flinch from calling music his therapy. Marriage break-up, the death of both parents, a 25 year battle with depression, even his dog’s illness have been brought to some sort of resolution through his songs. But as soon as you begin to feel uncomfortable intruding on personal grief, then a sick gag about diarrhoea or the wrong place to have your wife’s name tattooed reminds you that he is OK with sharing this, and that you are OK to enjoy the music.

Easy on the ear in all the right ways, Hubbert is a reminder that a sensitive guy with an acoustic guitar can still be a force for musical good, not evil.