Jackie Marshall

No, no, NO. This is all wrong! I don’t like country music. I don’t like country music. And one more time for the skeptics: I. Don’t. Like. Country. Music! There must be some mistake. My musical palette is a pure and refined slab of gold. Best clean my ears, start afresh. I am adamant about this: I DON’T LIKE – ok you get the picture. But Brisbanite Jackie Marshall’s hot-off-the-press second album Ladies’ Luck – dubbed ‘country-folk-rock’ by previous reviewers – challenges me, right from the opening line: “Eating cherries and drinking whiskey, we don’t have kids and there’s no man listening”. Ok, let’s be honest… she had me at ‘eating’.

Now, country music has received a lot of flack over the years. The CM lover has no place in our society of swanky young indie-pop-rock-electro-folksters, and it’s an unspoken rule that this particular genre has but one purpose: comic fodder. (Trust me, I hail from the dosey-doe-and-away-we-go Country Music Capital of Australia, Tamworth; I’m an expert). Yet despite the mentions of spurs, country fairs (gasp!) and rodeos (oh no, she di’n’t!) Jackie Marshall is being lauded as one of the most talented singer/song-writers around at the moment, since debuting in 2005 with folk/country debut Fight ‘n Flight.

I REALLY shouldn’t like this. And admittedly, there is corniness in this album: some of the big power ballad endings belted out in that strong husky voice of hers are akin to the type you’d find being slurred by some inebriated louts at the local on a Fridee noight. Fist clenching, eyes closed, the whole shebang. Yet somehow you still find yourself loving the song – heck, I even caught myself clench-handed! Her voice is phenomenal. Oozing personality (you can almost hear her smiling at times), she is able to control any vocal acrobatics that take place and the versatility is astounding. She possesses the ability to really let loose, grinding blissfully against your eardrums for the big ones and then, in stark contrast, perfecting an extremely emotive sense of fragility and warmth for the softer ballads. Decorated with gorgeous harmonies and backed for the big grunge numbers by the Black Alles Band, the album covers all the bases (seriously – have YOU ever heard a harmonized musical saw? Check out Track two).

Lyrically, the album ranges from the moving and poignant: “I should have drunk more/riding high on your horse/cos now my mouth sure feels dry/feels like a desert” to the darkly amusing: “And I don’t wanna be that girl keepin’ cats for company/So I’m gonna get a dog to sing along with me”. There are fun tracks, like the playful title track and opener ‘Ladies’ Luck’ and the fast-paced-fiddle-laced ‘Seven Licks’, but the songs where Marshall really excels are the ballads. ‘Excuse Me Mister (That’s My Heart)’ demonstrates this wonderfully – the dynamic variation between the soft, wistful verses and beautifully indulgent chorus grab you by the hairs on your neck and keep you floating in electric air. Her portrayal of feeling – and I say this as somebody VERY emotionally removed from paddocks/cattle/etc – is simply exquisite.

Now for all ye doubters, rest assured the grungier tracks on the album are more your sweaty-pub country than ‘grab-your-pardners-and-away-we-go’ barn dance variety (though I wouldn’t be surprised if I spotted a hay bale amongst the bar stools). ‘Too, Somebody’ will have you grabbing your air guitars for a no-holds-barred rock out, with Marshall’s gritty and passion-filled voice vies for the lead. ‘The Ugly Man’ claims equal intensity by the time it reaches its climax with staccato drumming and heavy guitar melodies kicking in for a pounding finish.

This is a new direction for Marshall and a far cry away from her more ‘folky’ previous album, but she not only pulls it off, she masters it. I for one hope she stays on this path for awhile (besides, then I can justify liking ‘rock’ music as opposed to ‘country’, thereby making me infinitely cooler in the eyes of society). - Musicfeeds.com.au

ROCK
Ladies' Luck
Jackie Marshall
Vitamin
4 stars
WHEN Jackie Marshall appeared seemingly out of nowhere on her groundbreaking 2006 debut Fight n'Flight, it was clear that an original Australian voice had arrived. And I'm not just talking about her quirky, sensual, seductive and often heartbreakingly emotive singing style. Marshall's songs were also unique. She opened a seam of gold in ordinary and not so ordinary Australian experience -- especially, but not exclusively, of the female kind -- that had somehow never made it into song before. However, like many an adventurous musician who starts off in the alternative country genre, Marshall obviously harboured an inner rock goddess that was just dying to get out. Ladies' Luck well and truly lets the genie out of the bottle. And don't think for one moment that this leap is into straightforward rock of the Janis Joplin or even the Melissa Etheridge kind. The title track, which opens proceedings, is a comic affair, with which, you suspect, many Aussie ladies out for nothing more than a good time with a friend will identify. Though slow paced, the fuzz guitar and organ land us firmly in rock territory as Marshall begins: "Eating cherries and drinking whiskey: we don't have kids and there's no man listening." Too, Somebody, which follows, is a real rock belter, with the Marshall voice practically tearing itself apart. It slides away into glockenspiel and sweet harmonies before returning for a full-on rock encore, then it whispers away again. Excuse Me Mister is what the Rolling Stones would have sounded like with a female vocalist. Headn South is a throwback to classic, pre-rock Marshall, with flat picking guitar, and a country air in which she neatly observes the contradictions of desire. "They met at the country fair. He didn't like her flaming hair. She didn't like his blatant stare. They got it on, right then and there," she sings. The whole thing surrenders, at the end, to a gorgeous fiddle chorus, and you can almost smell the hay. Marshall's songs might be confessional, and they just might be fiction. You may not know when she sings, in Just Like Deedee's Wife: "I can't sleep with a naked arse -- he couldn't understand it but he always let it pass" whether she speaks from the dust of her relationships or her imagination, so real is the conviction and heart in her voice. But what you can be sure of is that no one quite like Jackie Marshall has come along before. - Ian Cuthbertson - The Weekend Australian

"...it's excellent to see so many punters here early to cathc the set of local songstress Jackie Marshall. Her unrelenting, contagious enthusiasm fills the entire room while her special blend of off-kilter country/blues/folk is stridently impressive. Backed by a remarkable band and falling somewhere uniquely between Lucinda Williams and Janis Joplin, Marshall commands your attention and affections while tickling your musical taste buds all at the same time." Ben Preece, TimeOff
- TimeOff

Continuing the triple treat of Brisbane songwriters is the illustrious Jackie Marshall. Since the night is also the launch of her debut LP Fight'n'Flight, Marshall is in a very jovial mood, and judging by tonight's performance, this writer stands by his proclamation that we have our very own (female) Dylan amongst us. Marshall's delivery is unique. Her anecdotes and asides are as vital to her performance as the songs, and invite the audience into her world just that little bit more. On some songs she soars through a quick history of music, from the drunken scatting of Billie Holiday, to the alt-country croons of nearly any love-stained singer you've ever heard, and finally her own brand of folk rock.

It's an empowering, entertaining and envious performance from arguably the most confident female songwriter this city has produced in some time. - TimeOff

"Jackie Marshall performs for her first time with the WIV ensemble, yet the power of her performance surely ensures this will not be her last. Her husky, smooth, sensual voice and laid back, bluesy music about pain and pretty men make even the most ambivalent audience member melt in their seat. Marshall almost hides the true power of her voice, which enhances her performance’s mystery and intrigue."
Erin White - Australian Stage Online

"Jackie Marshall is the first to represent the back stage, and with only her guitar and deliciously splintered, grainy vocals, is not far from transfixing, telling tales of people she knows, friends who have fucked up or done right. Half-speaking some of her lyrical stories with a throat recalling an intimate solo Tim Rogers, and demonstrating tons of ruffian charm between songs, Marshall is unequivocally Australian without the clichés or culture cringe." SIMON TOPPER - RAVEMAG.com.au

"Jackie Marshall held 300 people in the palm of her hand for nearly an hour..." - The Nyngan Observer