Seth Lakeman has played a highly successful but curious role in the folk revival. An excellent multi-instrumentalist, he has written thoughtful songs about West Country life, and brought folk music into the charts with his boyband image and stomping anthems. As if to head off criticism that he had become too mainstream, his two last recordings reclaimed his folk credentials – alongside celebrities Martin Simpson and Fay Hield, he reworked traditional songs in the band The Full English, while his latest solo album, Word of Mouth, was based on his own research.

At Shepherds Bush Empire, Lakeman attempted to combine the different styles, but it was no surprise that the full-tilt, gutsy approach still dominated. Backed by a band that included singer-songwriter Lisbee Stainton, he started out with The Courier, a song from the new album that showed off his rousing violin work. Then he switched to tenor guitar for Take No Rogues, followed by the traditional Stand By Your Guns. All good songs, but with the same, cheerful foot-stomping approach.

He slowed down to mark the 70th anniversary of D-day. His own King and Country, a song about his grandfather taking part in the Normandy landings, was sung as a duet with Stainton, and followed by The Shores of Normandy, written by second-world-war veteran Jim Radford, and performed solo. Both were treated as heroic, epic ballads.

So it continued, with songs from the full band interspersed with acoustic duets, but little change in the overall mood. Even the pained and poignant traditional lament Portrait of My Wife was introduced as “a drinking song”. The crowd were on their feet by the time Lakeman stomped through a triumphant finale that ended with the whaling song Race to Be King. He is a reliable entertainer, but greater emotional range would have been welcome.

• At Birmingham Town Hall on 17 October. Box office: 0121-345 0600. Then touring.