You're not missing out. This was just one bit of banter that surfaced – in a response by John McCusker to wife Heidi Talbot's enthusiasm for the Johnny Depp sea shanty collection she hoped might win the Hollywood pirate's favour – as part of the informal atmosphere that prevailed here.

Kildare-born Talbot, a former singer with Irish-American favourites Cherish the Ladies, is just about to launch an EP in advance of a new album, which comes out in January, and is still working a few of the songs from both into her live set.

There were, consequently, a few uncertain moments and lines that might have been more clearly enunciated on songs such as her collaboration with King Creosote and an autobiographical one that recalled her spell living in New York before she met McCusker, moved to Scotland and became a mother.

Talbot has a pleasant, almost girlish voice and she presented a good range of songs, drawing on traditional Irish material and including both old Americana, such as the Blackest Crow's story of undying love, and more contemporary fare in Tom Waits's Time, sung sweetly and spontaneously as a request.

Her band – with McCusker on fiddle, cittern and whistle, Kris Drever on guitar and mandolin and the always inventive Ian Carr on guitar – provided apposite and relaxed accompaniments.

They managed to increase the energy levels where appropriate, with McCusker offering sparky fiddle intervals and a fine reading of John Sheahan's Christchurch that segued nicely into his wife's own, gentle, My Sister the Moon.

HHH