Intimate Newtown venue “Notes Live”  is rapidly becoming one of Sydney’s best-kept secrets. Similarly, Brisbane based female singer songwriter Jackie Marshall could be one of the countries best-kept secrets if tonight’s performance is anything to go by. I can also confirm that she’s completely out of her mind – and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Kicking the night of with three quarters of the official line-up were The Retreat. Country flavoured acoustic rock at its best with delicate arrangements of harmonicas, melodicas, multiple guitars and backing harmonies. The band is set to release their EP in June, and you could tell the songs had been well crafted and practiced. The front man later confirmed to me that this had something to do with living in a condemned mansion with the band for a few months. They even managed to include an autobiographical track about been punched in the face. “Everything has its place, like a speed freaks fist in the side of my face”, they were pretty damn good.

The next band called Heath Cullen and The 45 sounded like what The Retreat might sound like in ten years or so; the country sound was passed along and expanded with roaring organs and louder-the-hell drums. Track three was particularly unique and built off a Tom Waits-esque organ tango and rhythm waltz that had all the heads in the room bobbing. Another one of their songs “Bad Weather” was dark blues that took me right back to the days of Bonnie Prince Billy’s “I See A Darkness”. The band held their game throughout the whole set and there was no doubt they were veterans so the local alt-country scene, if there even is one.

I remembered seeing Jackie Marshall play in Townsville nearly three years ago at a tiny pub down near the railroad tracks, there were probably eight people at the show – but she still made an impression playing as a solo performer. Word had finally gotten out there, that this woman could actually mean something, and when she ripped into the set you could tell why.

You could almost feel Marshall channelling her heroes with the Janis Joplin howls and Patti Smith poetics that seemed to squeeze their way into the songs. I was also convinced she was insane based on her wild theatrics and random bursts of laughter in-between and during the songs. At first she seemed like a drunken karaoke girl at a hen’s night, but around song three it all started making sense.

Backed up by previous band The 45, Marshall sang songs about divorce despite never experiencing it. “I’m pretty good and lying and making shit up” she claimed. Most songs had more lyrics that “Birdland” of Patti Smith’s “Horses”, and her sailor-moon like poses all combined for a hugely entertaining performance. When she switched from acoustic to electric a few crowd members yelled out “Judas”, in reference to the legendary dispute at a Dylan concert. The main highlights were when the full-band were involved and rocking it out while Marshall yelled her little Dolly Parton lungs out. She mentioned it at the beginning of the night, and by the end I could see why. Jackie Marshall was born in the wrong era, and I hope people ignore that and check this soon-to-be national treasure out.