SLEEPING DOGZ is a three piece acoustic trio featuring Wild Willy Barrett, Mary Holland and John Devine. See www.musiczoo.co.uk for more details.

Sleeping Dogz @ The Plough, Great Torrington, by Dave Gibbons:

"Willy Barrett says he isn't "Wild" anymore: just livid. Those that turned out on a Thursday night to see his band Sleeping Dogz were split fairly evenly between those who knew what to expect and those who frankly didn't have a clue but nevertheless found themselves on the receiving end of a thouroughly entertaining and highly original performance from three seriously talented musicians.

Barrett himself is still best known for his previous partnership with the equally indefinable John Otway ('Beware of the flowers 'cos I'm sure they're gonna get you', for example) but he has moved on since the heady days of the 70s. He is, however, one the most accomplished multi-instrumentalists working today and played amazingly dextrous blues, neo-spanish, jazz, rock and folk with aplomb, barely sneaking a look at the fretboard of his guitar as he did so.

But it's a band. The classically trained Mary Holland plays cello, keyboards and sings wonderfully whilst fielding her bandmates' rather twisted sense of humour and John Devine, when he is not fixating on nurses and mooses (best not to ask) matches Barrett's fluency on uilleann pipes, flute, keyboards and an array of percussion.

The stand out for me was 'Train had Gone' with its audience participation shout of 'chicken', but it is hard to single out individual pieces. 'Please don't throw me to the Christians' is a corker, as is 'Gypsies Too', but even the most straight forward songs have a twist which renders them special. 'Old Joe Coral' is a white boy's mountain blues about bookmakers - and mighty fine it is too. And for sheer panache, you can't beat doing the encore before the last song in the set .....