Glaswegian Eddi Reader has had a long and varied career: busker, actor, backup singer for some big names, including Gang of Four and Eurythmics, brief pop stardom with Fairground Attraction, and then a series of very well-regarded albums. Vagabond shows Reader emerging more as a songwriter – her command of a number of musical styles is impressive, and provides a showcase for one of the most underrated voices around.

Reader has gathered a very sympathetic bunch of musicians, including long-time collaborator Boo Hewerdine on guitar, and heavyweights from the Celtic scene like Ian Carr, also on guitar, Alan Kelly, whose accordion playing is a real highlight here, John McCusker on fiddle, Michael McGoldrick on whistles and pipes, and various members of Capercaillie, to name but a few. The band really swings, easily shifting from up-tempo jazzy numbers to more melancholic Celtic songs.

Reader has always had strong connections to the traditional music of her homeland and she continues this here with her first foray into writing Gaelic lyrics on ‘Buain Na Rainich (Fairy Love Song)’ and a really good version of ‘In Ma Country’. ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ is a slice of Celtic soul with brass that Van Morrison would be proud of. The beautiful title track is a poem adapted to song by Reader, and the autobiographical ‘Midnight in Paris 1979’ recounts an early busking adventure and the beginnings of a vagabond life. The last year has been a difficult one for Reader – her husband, John Douglas, has been chronically ill – but she has emerged triumphant, producing a really beautiful and well-rounded collection of songs.

Paul Barr