Lissie Acoustic Tour | Manchester Academy | 5th December

I had the pleasure of seeing Lissie for the third time on Saturday. Storm Desmond delayed her stage time by two hours, the poor woman had 10 hours of travelling down from Edinburgh by train, after numerous train changes and delays, she got off the train at Manchester Piccadilly, got in a cab and walked straight onto stage. No soundcheck or time to catch her breath, and she was phenomenal.   Lissie has recently gone independent with her music, she has her own label and she is her own boss. You get the feeling that she is much more relaxed than before, she is playing and writing exactly what she wants and doing exactly what she wants.  After her day from hell travelling, she was just the second song in Further away (Romance Police) when her guitar amplification just stopped for some reason (the problems you have when you can't sound check!) but ever so professionally, Lissie carried on. She took her guitar off and carried on singing acapella with the whole crowd clapping and singing along.  Lissie treated us to a few songs from her new album My Wild West (out February 2016), including a great feminist anthem Daughters. After she played her latest single Don't You Give Up On Me, Lissie started taking requests from the audience. She played many much loved tracks from her previous two albums, the amount of requests that were shouted out showed just how much people love her music. Playing acoustically showcased her incredible vocal range. She has such a strong voice, Patti Smith esque with a hint of Stevie Nicks.