Back before Nashville turned its downtown bars into tourist traps, Paul Burch fronted a honky-tonk band with a residency at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. But where earlier Tootsie's alumni (Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson) went on to fame and fortune, Burch - born in Washington DC, raised in Virginia and living in Nashville since 1994 - is better known for his other job: vibraphone player with Lambchop. Still, half a dozen albums into his solo career things seem to be changing, at least on this side of the Atlantic.

Following the lead of alt. country acts such as the Handsome Family, Johnny Dowd and, indeed, Lambchop, Burch has become a regular on the UK tour circuit (usually, due to indie label budget strictures, without his band, the WPA Ballclub). His loyal followers were in the Borderline on this occasion, calling out requests and singing along with even the new songs.

Although Burch is here as part of Way Beyond Nashville - the London festival for artists on the margins of American roots music - he is not so much alternative as plain old country. Songs about good girls gone bad, making it home if the creek doesn't rise and turning into "the kind your mama warned you about" may look retro-pastiche in print, but they don't sound that way.

If anything, Burch seems like a man born 50-odd years out of his time. In opener Lovesick Blues Boy, his warm, unaffected voice rises and curls at the end of the line, stopping just short of a yodel - as if Hank Williams had been beamed up on to the Charing Cross Road (and into a highly unbecoming outfit of shapeless leather jacket and sensible jeans). Deserted Love goes further by quoting a Hank song outright. Mixing western ballads (Carter Cain), juke-joint rockabilly (Life of a Fool) and country (Rosa Lee), this is an engaging set of memorable songs, effortlessly performed by a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and his influences on a huge neon sign.

· Paul Burch plays the Barbican, London EC2, on Friday. Box office: 020-7638 8891.