According to their web site, the debut album by Brighton's The Curst Sons is now used to teach the Introduction To The Blues and Introduction To Americana courses at Northbrook, City and Sussex Downs colleges.

This should impress people who talk about things like "authenticity" and "musicianship". But all you need to know is that its successor, Hell Awaits You, the launch of which will be celebrated tonight with a "hillbilly shindig", is the best Brighton album in quite some time.

Bastions of bluegrass, blues and bad-mouthed gospel, The Curst Sons are growling vocalist Willi Kerr, banjo virtuoso Dave Simner and mandolin and slide guitarist Tim Dunkerley.

Tonight's gig will feature an expanded line-up, including backing vocals from The Similar Sisters (Dave's daughters, plus a friend, who can be heard at the end of the album thanking you for "buying my dad's CD").

But usually it's just the three of them, which Kerr reckons has helped The Curst Sons sound like "that early sort of music, homemade and played on a porch", rather than swelling into "some sort of awful country rock band".

When not concentrating on sounding like a dead bluesman walking, Kerr plays a homemade "rhythm pole", a sort of vertical drum kit which he describes as "a broom stick about 6ft high with bottle tops all over it you thump one end on the ground and scrape the other.

"We realise," he adds, "that you won't be seeing us on Top Of The Pops or MTV any time soon."

This, however, wasn't always the case. With Simner, Kerr was once a member of the legendary local band Daddy Yum Yum, who had a Sunday night residency at the Alhambra and supported Ian Dury at what is now the Hammersmith Apollo.

In the early Eighties, they caught the attention of pop impresario Pete Waterman, who offered them a deal. But the song he wanted to launch them with was the spoof Latin number they played as an encore.

Loathe to become a novelty band, they decided instead to "slouch back into obscurity". Contrary to appearances, then, The Curst Sons did not sell their souls to the Devil. And, some 20 years later, the success of Hell Awaits You could prove their just reward.

There's a country ballad sung like Marc Bolan with weights on his balls and a stick of straw twixt his teeth.

There's also a slice of howling dog blues addressed to Jennifer Lopez. There's something like a White Stripes gig overheard from a moonlit vantage point some five miles down the track. And there's a spine-thrilling banjo work-out in which a woman with coal black hair and a blood red skirt presents her lover with a bag of graveyard dirt.

"Southern woman uses underhand methods to attract her lover," reads the sleeve note. Nick Cave would surely approve.

"With our music, you don't have to worry about whether you're doing the right steps," says Kerr of The Curst Sons' rip-roaring live shows. "And I'll definitely be encouraging people to dance tonight. In the middle of the raucous ones, when everyone's already committed themselves to the dance floor, we often like to throw in a waltz."

The Curst Sons combine skirtswinging, pint-swilling joy, folkish themes and an ability to surprise you with a waltz. If their new album doesn't launch them countrywide, it should at least result in a full-time career as the wedding band for couples with exquisite taste.

Starts 8.00pm. Tickets £8/£6, call 01273 647100.