C soco urban garden (venue website) Tue 12 Aug, 1pm (1:45pm)

KAYLA KAVANAGH is a 29-year-old singer/songwriter from Ireland, who'll be performing 23 times over the course of 9 days at this year’s Festival Fringe. Around half of these 23 shows will be ticketed, while the remainder will be free at locations such as the C SoCo Urban Gardens.

With a bar and balcony at the top of the site, a couple of half-pipes making up a "skatepark", a makeshift "beach", electronic lighting system and a large marquee, the Urban Gardens are the rather unusual reincarnation of the site on which once stood the Gilded Balloon. This was Kayla’s first performance of three at the beach area on the site, and she was running a little late; her guerrilla run-through of a handful of songs didn’t manage to top twenty minutes once she’d finally set-up.

Suffering from an early, barely-publicised slot just a few days into the launch of the Fringe, Kayla started singing to a reception made up of only venue employees and a handful of drinkers at the balcony above. But you certainly couldn’t fault her enthusiasm. She cheerfully addressed nobody and wasn’t at all fazed by it. Frequently promoting herself, her spirit was admirable while her performance was loud and clear.

Kayla’s outdoor shows are performed from a 1976 VW Kampervan, complete with microphone, PA and guitar. Her live shows include keyboards, flutes, electric violin and additional music technology. But on the evidence of the four or five songs I witnessed, the music itself is rather generic, consisting of a few competently-played chords and a collection of over-familiar lyrics. Perhaps with her complete arsenal of instruments, her music is more engaging, but in this stripped-down form it needs something more to connect with the listener.

Without a doubt, Kayla’s strongest characteristic is her voice. Obviously benefiting from vocal training, her technically-impressive singing is well-controlled and powerful. However, her singing voice, VW Kampervan and pink guitar aren’t quite enough to make Kayla Kavanagh stand out. When it comes to singer/songwriters, one thing is more important than anything else: personality.

It doesn’t matter how original you are musically, vocally or lyrically if you’re not communicating your own unique character. Tellingly, Irish-born Kayla Kavanagh introduced only one of her songs as having a Celtic flavour. The rest were trite love songs made up of lyrics featuring American staples such as dimes and taxicabs. Unfortunately, it appears that amongst all of her props, Kayla has forgotten to bring along one very important thing: herself.

Kayla Kavanagh is also performing free gigs at The Counting House and ticketed performances at The Music Box, Stevenson College.  A full programme is available on her own website.