The word eclectic hardly seems adequate to sum up Cerys Matthews' songlist at the Pacific Road Arts Centre on Friday night.

Blues to folk, lyrical ballad to centuries-old medieval mystery, it's all in the mix.

She's even got a guitar player who's a wizard on the oud (a sort of Armenian lute since you ask) - and not a lot of bands can say that.

Best known for her world-wide late-1990s' success with Britpop outfit Catatonia, (or perhaps for her infamous appearance on ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity) in more recent years Cerys has moved away from all of that to become instead a favourite among folk fans.

So anyone expecting a 1998 Glasto-style melee was in for a surprise on Friday.

An unusually hushed atmosphere prevailed for her first set at the PRAC, which even her easy onstage conversation and story telling seemed unable to shake. But fair dos, her audience was hanging onto her every word.

She is blessed with an excellent and highly-distinctive voice which can turn on a sixpence from a whisper to a (melodic) scream.

The folklore of her homeland features large on her new album Explorer, released through her own label, Earthquake.

And in her whispery Welsh vowels she conjures evocative pictures of life in the Principality - songs she heard and loved from her childhood, including one which evoked the anvil crashes of an old smithy, the audience warming to the theme and merrily joining in - with a "Miggledy, muggledy, no, no, no!"

This was followed by the best-known and said to be the most often sung song in the Welsh language, Sosban Fach ("Little Saucepan").

But hold on, she's not just all about the folk and misty-eyed traditions.

There were also some really bluesy new tunes like latest single Sweet Magnolia and How Can you Say so Little When You Talk So Much, when her excellent band put down the acoustics and double bass to pick up their electric guitars.

She'd done her Birkenhead homework too, boasting that she knew more about the ancient first voyages of the Mersey ferryboats than anyone else in the crowd - she tested us as well so we knew this to be true!

Another unusual and extremely enjoyable evening at the Pacific Road.

PS: Sadly, I was told off for trying to take a photograph, so there aren't any. Sorry.