Alyssa Bonagura

The band were tight, the sound was perfect, and the songs were great.

Tennessee-born Country and Americana singer, songwriter and music producer Alyssa Bonagura returned to Norwich on Saturday for a headlining slot at the Adrian Flux Waterfront Studio, the fourth date on a tour to promote her new album 'America's Backroads' that has already seen her sell out dates at Glasgow and Bristol, and it certainly seemed pretty full at the Waterfront as well.

She was last in Norwich back in February, when she opened at the Waterfront for UK country singer Kezia Gill, who was performing here to promote her new release 'All On Red', an album that had been produced and mixed in Nashville by Bonagura. And, judging by a show of hands, quite a few members of that audience were back at the Waterfront tonight.

Because it is a Saturday night, we have to be done and dusted by 10.30pm to make way for the Waterfront's regular 'Meltdown' club night, meaning that doors are at the unfashionably early 6.30pm, and opener Jackie Lee is on stage at 7.30pm.

Lee is a genial, self-confessed Tennessee hillbilly who is on his first-ever visit to the UK, let alone Norwich, but seems impressed by our city and its castle – apparently they don't have castles in Tennessee. He jokingly apologises for any confusion over his name, and to anyone here who was expecting to hear a 'hot Asian country singer'. (Personally, I was hoping for the Irish singer who had a big hit in 1968 singing the theme tune to television's White Horses, and then again two years later with Rupert The Bear). But Lee charms his audience with a six-song set of tunes about relationship break-ups, Ford F-250 pick-up trucks, and of small-town Tennessee. Let's hope we get to welcome him back soon.

Bonagura is no stranger to the UK. Although she spent much of her childhood travelling around the States on board a tour bus with her parents (Kathie Baillie and Michael Bonagura of Tennessee country act Baillie and The Boys), Alyssa came to the UK aged 18 to study music production at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. She later performed alongside Rod Stewart's daughter Ruby in their own country band The Sisterhood. For this tour she is backed by a three piece band that includes drummer Adam Beaney, and her Welsh fiancé Steve Shirley on guitar.

Even with time against her, Bonagura manges to fit all of the thirteen songs from her new album into her set. Which leaves room for just one extra song, a solo version of 'I Make My Own Sunshine', with Bonagura accompanying herself on ukele. It is a song that she wrote whilst still at college in Liverpool, but went on to feature on a television campaign for American DIY chain Lowes. It was later covered by Aerosmith's Steve Tyler on his album 'We're All Somebody From Somewhere'. As a performer, Bonagura is a consummate musician and singer. Her self-penned songs cover a whole gamut of moods and emotions – from the rocking upbeat country of opener 'Feels So Good!' to the folky 'I Wanna Go' - the album's opening track, but tonight forming a perfect conclusion to the evening.

The band were tight, the sound was perfect, and the songs were great. On up-tempo country numbers like 'Feels So Good!' she sounded a bit like Shania Twain. At other times, she reminded me of Sheryl Crow. Pop ballad 'Old Friends' has the feel of Donna Lewis' 1996 hit 'I love You Forever Always', whilst the folky 'Hippies & Gypsies' reminded me of Billy Joel's 'Piano Man'. But, at the end of the evening, the audience seem happy, and we all file out of the Waterfront Studio on a still-light evening, just as the Saturday night clubbers clubbers are beginning to arrive for their weekly Meltdown.