Laura Marling, Journal Tyne Theatre, Newcastle

QUITE shockingly, the accomplished singer-songwriter impressing all at this enthralling gig was born in the 1990s.

That is really quite youthful, especially for someone with two magical albums under her belt.

Not that age should come into it, of course. But really, here is a woman producing pop songs sometimes tinged with country, sometimes folk, but always with a lyrical and melodic sensibility that disguise her mere 20 years.

Half way through comes Goodbye England, the centre point of this show, a song that seems to freeze time. She introduces it with a story of how, growing up in Hampshire, her father asked her to take her back to the spot they gazed upon when he was about to die. She thinks it's a mean thing to say to an eight year old, but actually it's a "beautiful sentiment". And it is a beautiful song. It's not often (adopts stiff upper lip) a tear comes to one's eye at a gig, but here it did.

Not for the last time she stands, caught in the spotlight, as a rapt audience senses this could be the start of something special.

Of the new album I Speak Because I Can, pictured right, the acoustic mini drama Devil's Spoke opens, while Hope In The Air and Rambling Man are loud but vulnerable with the odd bass guitar played by a violin bow. I'd compare the latter to Joni Mitchell if it wasn't as facile as banging on about her youthfulness.

Ghosts, the first from her debut LP, is wonderful - "These are just ghosts that broke my heart before I met you" - while her broken cover of Neil Young's Needle and the Damage Done gives way to Failure and an apt lyric about having "so much more to live for".

Alas I Cannot Swim is a fairy tale sung from a Laura shrouded in golden light. Like much of the night, it was enthralling, often thrilling. You sense she'll be back. England awaits.