First there was The Beatles, then The Farm, The Las, and more recently The Coral and The Stands.

Will Liverpool ever stop exporting great rock bands? Judging by Merseyside's latest offering, let's hope not.

The Zutons are a four-piece who play bluegrass, roots and danceable rock&roll.

On Wednesday, they make a welcome return to the Zodiac, for their first headline show in the city. But if you think Liverpool bands are all jangly guitars and catchy melodies, prepare to be surprised. This lot owe more to the Mississippi than the Mersey, sounding like a bunch of natural-born New Orleans funk-soul brothers.

Not surprisingly, their catchy blend of southern US rhythm and northern England realism is getting them noticed. And it's about time, says drummer Sean Payne.

"I don't want to sound cocky, but we think we are pretty good -- and it's about time people took notice," he said while setting up his kit before a gig in Exeter.

Sean doesn't like The Zutons to be lumped with other Liverpool bands. "When you are from the same city you get labelled together," he says. "But we have totally different songwriting styles and lyrics. I'd like to think Liverpool isn't so important to us.

"There have only been a couple of good bands from Liverpool, but no one could say that about New Orleans -- and that's where most of the stuff we listen to comes from." It shows. Songwriter, singer and guitarist, 22 year-old David McCabe, says he always wanted the band to follow in the soul, rock and funk footsteps of acts such as Sly And The Family Stone and Talking Heads.

"We wanted to cross jazz with funk, and soul with country," he explains. "We just wanted to mix everything together.

"About six months ago I started writing much better songs. We got into this whole soul-funk-voodoo vibe because we were listening to the likes of Dr John.

"We just suddenly realised what made us exciting."

One question Sean, David, guitarist Boyan Chowdhury, bassist Russell Pritchard and saxophonist Abi Harding are always being asked is where they found their name. And it is one that still stumps Sean."We should make up a different story for this every time we get asked," he says. "It is just something Dave made up. He asked us what we thought, and we all said 'great'.

"It has got a B-movie sound to it, which fits in with all the quirky stuff we like."

The band's new single Pressure Point is a dark New Orleans-flavoured soul classic that -- according to David -- is about "that first 10 minutes when you get home from work and want to kill everybody."

Debut album Who Killed The Zutons will be released in April.

The show is part of the Zodiac's Trashy night and includes entry to the club night afterwards. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are £5 or £6 on the door.

Box office 01865 420042.