It was the Roundhouse, but not as we know it. By cordoning off an inner circle with curtains and covering the reduced floor area with tables and chairs, a 2,000-capacity rock venue was reduced to an intimate, yet still quite imposing, club event, the perfect environment for a rising folk artist such as James Yorkston. A soft-spoken but flinty Scotsman with an acoustic guitar, Yorkston is a graduate of the Fence Collective, the loose aggregation of performers and songwriters from Fife that included KT Tunstall, King Creosote and others. Now in his late thirties, Yorkston maintained a determinedly downbeat presence as he took the stage, accompanied by the group of musicians who used to be known as the Athletes, but are apparently no longer credited as such.

Standing in front of a dark, starry backdrop, they played the first few numbers with the studiously precise air of a chamber concert. Tortoise Regrets Hare was a gently undulating folk song incorporating violin, clarinet, accordion, upright bass and the most discreet drumkit embellishments. Yorkston sang the romantically themed lyric with a dry, deadpan air of lingering melancholy. It was all very sensitive and sensible, but a bit of a yawn.

Yorkston's sense of humour was something of an acquired taste too. He begged the audience to ignore his nervousness and respond with rapturous applause. While his sincerity and lack of pretension was welcome, such self-deprecation was unnecessary.

They ploughed on, building up a bit of momentum with the lively, lilting Shipwreckers, then discarding it again during the ponderous Heron before arriving at the title track of Yorkston's new album, When the Haar Rolls in. A long, epic rumination on the meaning of many things, the song unfolded like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but without the narrative excitement. “When the haar rolls in, it's just a question of waiting things out,” he sang, which is a bit how this gig felt.

James Yorkston plays the Caves, Edinburgh, on September 17

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