Despite inevitable comparisons to dinner party favourites Katie Melua and Dido, Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall has unexpected passion and a

defiant originality.

The 29 year-old scenester refuses to be typecast and her distinctive blend of rootsy sass and authentic folk single her out from the MOR crowd.

Some will remember her appearance on LaterWith Jools Holland at the end of last year. Singing her stomping, bluesy single Black Horse And The Cherry Tree, she was a revelation - a sparkling performer who proved herself capable of both lyrical depth and rousing, heartfelt melodies.

Her debut album Eye To The Telescope is the creative consequence of KT's curious mind and her time growing up in the university town of St Andrews ("beautiful but sheltered, a little bubble") with the knowledge that she had been adopted at birth. "I grew up knowing I could have had a million different lives. It makes your life mysterious and your imagination go wild," she says.

"My songs examine and explore little specific emotions or situations or stories. They're kitchen table songs, like a conversation between me and one other person.

"It's almost like an alien has been sent to get emotional samples from human beings and put it all together on a record."

Characterised by a raw emotion reminiscent of Janis Joplin and the close-up quality of Carole King, her earthy voice developed naturally alongside her childhood obsession with music.

By her mid-teens, KT had started writing her own songs. "I was just coming out with this schmaltzy love nonsense. It was a complete vomit of puppy love. But I thought I was rocking."

At 16 she took up the guitar, teaching herself from a busker's book, and found her vocation.

After a spell in America, a music course at Royal Holloway College in London and various failed band attempts, KT returned to St Andrews and became immersed in the grassroots music scene there - a vibrant creative community which spawned The Beta Band and the Fence Collective. For a while, KT played in a group with Fence's Pip Dylan.

A diet of James Brown, Lou Reed, Billie Holiday, Johnny Cash and PJ Harvey continued to fuel her creativity and, with over a hundred songs in her pocket, she returned to London, secured a deal and set to work on her debut album with a new band and U2/New Order/Happy Mondays producer Steve Osborne.

"On the whole, I'm a positive, skippity-la-la person but I love the dark side of music and I will always want to explore that. It's a positive-sounding album but there's stuff underneath for sure," she says.

Since completing the album, KT's life has been a whirlwind of gigs - first as support to Joss Stone, then a tour of Europe singing with klezmer hip-hop' band Oi Va Voi, at Glastonbury and now Brighton.

"I'm not exactly sure what has driven me so hard," she says. "I've never questioned it. I've never had a back-up plan. I was never going to do anything else."

Starts 7pm, tickets cost £9. Call 01273 673311.