To many people, the name Emmylou Harrises of Nashville. and conjures up images of a good ol' gal, singing bittersweet, homespun ditties. Sure, she has the simplicity of a country star, but plenty more besides. There's a serious edge to her music; it's got as much balls as it has heart (as Robert Plant, who was among the crowd, would agree). The 50plus singer has been making hits for almost three decades, but tonight she strode on stage leather-clad and looked stunning, more rock-chick than Nashville veteran, and had a sound to match.

Accompanying Harris was a three-piece she calls Spyboy, with alternative country music producer/ singer/songwriter and phenomenal guitarist Buddy Miller as the lynchpin of the trio. The perfect synchronicity of the rhythm section, drummer Brady Blade and bassist Tony Hall, also deserves a mention. Moving effortlessly between the lightest folk shuffles and the meanest rock grooves, they were the bedrock on which Harris built a towering performance.

She seemed genuine in saying the night's gig felt like a homecoming, adding that the Olympia was her all-time favourite venue ("like being inside a big beautiful wedding cake"). And this sense of comfort seemed to enhance her on stage presence, making her at once familiar and iconic, and infusing the performance and her almost-breathless voice with the same contradictory quality.

The song list, ranging from Gram Parsons's classic Love Hurts to songs from her latest album, Red Dirt Girl, showed off her tantalising vocals at their best. For the classic three-part harmony parts, Hall and Miller joined her, and they sang the most achingly simple tunes with precision and understated virtuosity. And they rocked out with force when necessary, as well as playing a few countrified blues numbers.

Midway through the gig, Harris quoted a friend, Townes Van Zandt, who once said there were only two kinds of music in the world, the Blues and Zippidy-dooda. On the evidence of this performance, it seems Emmylou Harris may have invented a third.