Star Rating: ***

Steve Forbert's ability to write a great roots-rock song is not in doubt - they are scattered throughout this two-hour show - but the presentation leaves much to be desired. He may sit comfortably with his place in a lineage that spans Dylan and Springsteen through to Earle, Petty and Adams, but his performance is workmanlike rather than inspired.

This is partially down to the band, whose session-player competence masks a lack of engagement with the material, meaning that some songs that ought to sparkle merely plod. When Forbert, pictured, dismisses his colleagues for acoustic versions of Jimmie Rodgers's In The Jailhouse Now and his own Middle Age, there is a flicker of charisma and less to detract from the lyrics and conviction with which they are delivered.

Elsewhere it is a mixed bag: I Just Work Here and Baghdad Dream show that he has not lost his writing craft, while Romeo's Tune remains his signature song. As a finale, it is a great soft-rock track, sensitive and harmonic while retaining its youthful zeal. This is partly why it still shines, as, although Forbert works hard throughout, his show frequently comes across as laboured.