First impressions showed a young lass armed with an acoustic guitar over one shoulder and a handbag over the other, which was carefully put to one side just before the opening chord.

However, a few seconds into the first song affirmed everything that one needs to know about this aspiring singer-songwriter from Burnham-on-Crouch. Complemented by delicate finger-picked guitar and a spine-tinglingly celestial voice - a million miles away from the Essex girl stereotype - Walsh's songs have a fragility not heard since Kathryn Williams last picked up her guitar.

It could be termed 'folk' but it's not the trad kind you're likely to hear at the Cambridge Folk Festival. In fact, the only thing Kate Walsh has in common with the British folk scene is a healthy renunciation of electric and electronic instruments. The often-complex nature of the guitar playing also sets her apart from the generic strumming of many other acoustic singer-songwriters.

Apparently discovered by producer Lee Russell just prior to going to university to study music, Walsh is clearly an accomplished singer and guitarist, and her performance tonight made pleasant listening. Every so often someone comes along and strips everything away to just guitar and voice to show how it can still be done. A couple of years ago, Swedish acoustic duo Kings of Convenience did precisely that, and Walsh's soon-to-be-released debut, Clocktower Park, may well do the same.

That said, there wasn't a song played tonight which grabbed me by the shirt collars and demanded attention, which either means they are slow burners, or that Walsh has yet click comfortably into her niche. Whichever is true, tonight certainly promised greater things to come, and of the plethora of singer-songwriters constantly emerging on the scene, Kate Walsh should certainly be filed under 'one to watch'.

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees