Kirsty Merryn + Hanna Haas

It has been a turbulent few weeks for live music in Norwich. Stories of yet more venues closing as a result of imposed rent increases, and a report of one customer being thrown out of a city bar for continuously haranguing the acoustic performer to 'play some ABBA', suggests that running a series of music nights is more challenging than folk realise. One promoter that seems to have got the formula right with their once-a-month acoustic soirées at Norwich Guildhall is Grapevine for Music. Curated by Steve Howlett, and attracting a mix of local, national and international acts, Grapevine proves that with careful programming audiences will return month after month, partly through reputation but also by having consistent quality acts appear. This month was no exception, and it brought together singer songwriter Hanna Haas from Portland, Oregon, and New Forest songstress, Kirsty Merryn.

Hanna Haas originally hails from California, and her songs brim with lyrical imagery of sunshine, sea and mountains. She is also teaches yoga, and there is a palpable gentleness and spirituality in her delivery that fills the room as she sings. There is also a 70's vibe that takes me back to those Joni Mitchell and Melanie albums, and perhaps Nick Drake. However, Haas' voice manages to still hit the same sweet spots as contemporary singers like Lucy Rose. She is certainly well connected, having members of Marty O'Reilly's Old Soul Orchestra and Rainbow Girls' Erin Chapin helping out during the recording of her last EP, Unstruck.

Tonight, Haas opens with Dear Lost Friend and Sweet Morning, both songs off the EP, and then continues to charm us with songs like Northern Sky, and the salutary tale of a bird, a boy and a dog in The Crow Song. There is even time for a joke about two whales, delivered in an amiably cetaceous manner during a pause for guitar re-tuning. This whole tour appears to have come about in response to a need to do something new, along with playing in an old building with fairy lights, and eating crumpets. The Guildhall provided an opportunity for all three.

Kirsty Merryn was last here in October of last year, when she opened for Show Of Hands at Norwich Cathedral, and with just her keyboard for accompaniment. On this, her headlining tour, she is accompanied by Todd MacDonald on guitar and vocals. The debut album, She & I, released during last year's tour, received rave reviews, not least for its narrative collection of songs featuring famous women through history, and comparing Merryn to the likes of Cara Dillon and Tori Amos.

Yet it is a traditional tale, that of The Outlandish Knight, with which Merryn opens her set tonight, with its detailing of unwanted attention appearing rather contemporary within today's context of #MeToo. And it is a song about her great, great grandfather, a Chesterfield miner and boxing champion, that is performed proudly as The Pit and The Pugalist, before a sympathetic account of Lord Nelson's mistress, Emma Hamilton, brings a touch of Norfolk history to The Guildhall via The Fair Tea Maker of Edgware Row.

MacDonald accompanies on one more song, Constantine, about the famous Cornish surfing beach, before Merryn is left alone to perform another rather unchivalrous traditional tale, The False-Hearted Knight, followed by the story of Victorian ghost painter Georgiana Houghton (An Evening At Home In Spiritual Séance), and the closing track from She & I, The Birds Are Drunk. Her partner then returns to take the part of Grace Darling's lighthouse keeper father William in the duet Forfarshire. On the last tour, and on the album, this was performed by Show of Hands' Steve Knightley. With an obvious difference in age and vocal style, MacDonald resists an attempt at mimicking Knightley's version and uses his own natural tone to create a rather lovely pastoral harmony, and in so doing stamps his own identity into the ballad.

When the potentially heinous crime of plugging in an electric guitar occurs, ready for the start of Delilah and Sampson, the Grapevine acoustic audience take it comfortably in their stride, and the resultant electric accompaniment is both restrained and elegant, and positively contributes to the arrangement. So, the electric guitar stays out for a new song, The Deep, The Wind, The Torrent. Written whilst in Jersey and filled with twilight lyricism, this should feature on the next album. The mood is sombred somewhat for the set closer, Bring Up The Bodies. Prefaced with a recommendation to read Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death, it is performed as an unaccompanied duet, and delivered to a funereal rhythm, provided by slow foot stomping and percussive slaps.

An encore seemed both necessary and justified, and we are rewarded with The Wake. Merryn has Irish ancestry and, as she explains, a wake is an opportunity not to say good-bye, but 'See You Soon'. And hopefully that is the case. The evening has been an enchantment from start to finish - two wonderfully personable singers, introducing and performing their respective material with authenticity and charisma. The Guildhall seems to have worked its magic once again.

So if you were scratching your head and wondering what makes a successful gig, look no further than Grapevine for Music for inspiration.