Sam Lee is surely the most unpredictable and inventive young traditional singer on the British folk scene. He's a passionate song-collector who has learned from the Gypsy and travelling communities of England, Scotland and Ireland. He has a distinctive vocal style with a quietly laid-back, unforced baritone, but dancing across the stage in his jeans, bright shirt and bare feet, he looked tonight more like an exuberant young pop star.

Using an unlikely array of global instruments, the settings for his traditional repertoire were constantly experimental. "These songs used to be sung unaccompanied," he explained, "so when it comes to arranging them, anything goes."

Indeed. He started out kneeling, singing the English Gypsy song Wild Wood Amber to the backing of violin, plucked cello, muted trumpet, Japanese koto and the drone effects of his Indian shruti box. This was folk with an ambient, edgy and almost jazzy backing, but it worked. More experiments followed. Lee recently appeared on the Radio 4 programme Singing With Nightingales, matching his live treatment of The Tan Yard Side with birdsong. There were no nightingales at the QEH, but their place was taken by two inventive violinists.

The second set was even more startling, opening with a treatment of On Yonder Hill backed by the rhythmic, somewhat unearthly sound of trumpet and tuned pressure cylinders, played by Saul Eisenberg. Lee then proved that he could sound equally impressive without unlikely instrumentation, as he was joined by the massed ranks of the Roundhouse Choir on the charming Lovely Molly. By the end, he was backed by 10 musicians for an edgy, jaunty Phoenix Island, learned from a Gypsy person who lived in the caravan park under Shepherd's Bush roundabout. I can't imagine why the hall wasn't full. Lee's unique take on folk music needs to be heard.