CURIOUS and excited in equal measure, when audiences at this year’s Celtic Connections first encountered 3hattrio, a slightly strange, hybrid band born in the Utah desert, they didn’t know quite what to expect.

But after a sublime evening in the company of Hal Cannon, Greg Istock and Eli Wrankle, they soon discovered that the trio’s unlikely combination of old-time Americana, chamber music and jazz creates something rather delicious.

As music critic Paul Kerr noted afterwards of the band’s first ever European show, 'There’s a serene, Zen-like wisdom imparted to those in the audience prepared to empty their preconceptions'.

And audiences in the Borders will be able to experience their own taste of the band’s ethereal music when 3hattrio play the Eastgate Theatre on Saturday.

For those who have spent time in the high desert of the American southwest – an otherworldly place of sheer sandstone cliffs, distant mesas and pristine air – it’s a sound that seems to perfectly fit the landscape of its birth.

More curious still, the band spans not just genres but also ages.

A practising musician for much of his life, not to mention a folklorist, radio producer and scholar of cowboy lore, Hal Cannon sings, plays banjo and guitar, and writes the majority of 3hattrio’s songs.

A second old head, Greg Istock plays acoustic bass and foot percussion, bringing a Caribbean flavour to the band’s sound.

But it’s Eli Wrankle, a classically trained violinist who joined the band aged 15 and is still only 20, who is described as 'the old soul of the group'.

Together they produce music that is atmospheric, mirage-like, and spiced with old-time cowboy, classical jazz and Caribbean overtones. It’s a heady mix.

3hattrio play the Eastgate Theatre on Saturday evening at 7.30pm. Tickets £14 available from Box Office on 01721 725777, or online.