Eddi Reader , Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ***** The current Burns anniversary frenzy is in danger of provoking Bard overload. Eddi Reader's show, however, was a perfect reminder of just why the man deserves to be central to our cultural identity.

A nice opening touch was a flyer, in the form of a 250th birthday card, which had been designed by Reader and left on each seat before the performance. Couched in an eighteenth-century style, it explained why we were there and who would be performing. We were there, of course, to listen to Reader's beautiful interpretations of Robert Burns's songs. In this, she was aided not just by some of the finest traditional musicians, such as John McCusker, Boo Hewerdine, Ian Carr and her old mucker from Fairground Attraction, drummer Roy Dodds, but by the Orchestra of the Scottish Opera. The result was stunning.

From the opener, Jamie Come Try Me, with Hewerdine's guitar picking out the melody, until the spell-binding closer of Auld Lang Syne, with the Scottish Opera strings excelling in a glorious arrangement by the late Kevin McCrae, Reader did not put a foot wrong. Whether it was songs of love, like Ae Fond Kiss, to the slightly less savoury paen to self abuse, Brose and Butter, Reader's voice soared and swooped with effortless grace. The set proper ended with Willie Stewart, McCusker whipping up a storm and the concert hall turned into a ceilidh.

Reader has said that, rather than perform these songs as some sort of academic exercise, she sings them in a way that she hopes the man himself would enjoy. Doubtless, wherever he is, Burns is smiling from lug to lug. Sponsored by ScottishPower.