There can be few better positions from which to appreciate live acoustic music than a matter of inches away from the performers. Most of the time chances for such intimacy with excellent musicians are few and far between: yet for Festival Folk at the Oak it can be expected on a nightly basis.

My first foray into this haven of acoustic sanity (in a city filled to the gunnel's with the brash sounds of an ever growing festival) was an all too rare Edinburgh appearance by Glasgow based duo The Doghouse Roses.

Paul Tasker on guitar and Iona MacDonald on vocals are a very honest, down to earth looking couple. They seem- on first impressions- like the sort of people who you would happily invite to a dinner party as a regular safe option. This unassuming stage presence really is an advantage rather than a hindrance, especially in real folkie haunts. Rehearsed interjections, "there was this one time when we were on tour in Switzerland" anecdotes and the like were blissfully absent from the Doghouse Roses approach to performance.

Both guitarist and singer never have their musical heroes too far from their minds when performing. This offers a refreshingly honest attitude to the potentially repetitive nature of song writing in the era of recorded music, and recognises the importance of retaining the links to their combined musical roots. In the case of Tasker Bert Jansch seems to have exerted a continual influence on his guitar playing (although at points I detected a few fretted nods to Richard Thompson too). When combined with the Denny like abilities of Iona MacDonald there are many points when the Doghouse Roses are reminiscent of the heyday outputs of Pentangle or Fairport Convention.

Like Sandy Denny, MacDonald is the owner of a voice that can tackle blues and folk with equal eloquence. This seems to be down to the fact that both singers treat them as essentially the same form of expression: there is no attempt to differentiate between singing songs from different sides of the Atlantic. Many singers would do well to learn this lesson from the Doghouse Roses.

Although most of their set consists of original material, the highlight for me was a haunting re-working of "Ae Fond Kiss". It was one of the few versions of this brilliant, but easily mishandled song, of love never to be fulfilled that actually does its truly sorrowful subject matter justice. Yet in testament to the couple's diversity they were equally at home storming through Merle Travis's "16 Tonnes".

The original material is conscientiously written, honest and diverse. From the highly reflective "Pilgrims Tale" to the down-and-out balladry of "Fairground" and of course the gloriously youthful assertiveness of "The Whistle Song".

At the end of the day what makes the Doghouse Roses worth seeing is the simple combination of their lack of ego, their forthright approach to traditional and original song, and the underlying quality of their musicianship. At points their music may be a bit too dreich, with some songs a little too introverted. This is of no consequence however due to their very open, and very communal approach to playing them, and it takes a setting like Festival Folk at the Oak for this to really shine.