Although he is an international star who has reportedly sold more than 50 million albums, Bryan Adams has reached a point in his career where general interest in yet another new collection of his songs is by no means automatic. Hence the curious campaign to flag up his new album, 11, released on Monday.

It is Adams's 11th studio album, and features 11 new songs, so to get the ball rolling, the expatriate Canadian has elected to play 11 shows in 11 countries in 11 days. A jolly excursion, no doubt, but surely one of the most meaningless pegs on which to hang a marketing campaign yet devised.

Far more intriguing than the numerological stuff was the way Adams chose to present himself at his only UK show in the itinerary: alone, in a church, armed with just an acoustic guitar and a harmonica to accompany himself. Unlike Bruce Springsteen, with whom he was often compared in the early years, Adams is not given to playing the folk troubadour card. Without his band and stripped of all the arena-rock artillery, this was a case of an artist stepping well out of his comfort zone.

Adams handled the situation with consummate poise. He admitted that he was nervous to be playing in his adopted home town - eliciting little sighs of sympathy from the crowd of overwhelmingly female admirers in front of the stage - then immediately landed the killer blow with a rendition of the super-nostalgic Summer of '69.

He chatted casually between numbers and managed to make eye contact, at some point, with every person in the hall. Numbers from the new album, such as Tonight We Have the Stars and the current single I Thought I'd Seen Everything, relied on the tried and tested songwriting methods that have sustained him for a quarter of a century, no matter how they were presented on this occasion. And for every unfamiliar tune there was a banker from the back catalogue: Can't Stop This Thing We Started, Cuts Like a Knife, Heaven, Run to You and an encore of Straight From the Heart and The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me is You.

If there was a flaw, it was in the rugged professionalism of the performance. The great solo singer-songwriters bring a deeply personal dimension to their performances. Adams came across as a nice guy with some neat songs, but not as a true storyteller with wisdom to impart.

Bryan Adams's UK tour starts at Nottingham Arena, Oct 25

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