Over the course of her noontime set at the Blackheart, Portsmouth singer-songwriter Jerry Williams seemed to display a natural flair for performing as she ran through a fair number of memorable songs during her set, including “Mother,” “Pistachio” (‘my favourite of all the nuts” according to Williams), “What Do You Want For Breakfast” and “Your Friends Not Mine,” which seemed to almost morph into Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” for a minute near the end.

One of the highlights of the set for me was “David At The Bar,” a song Williams wrote about a man she met at the bar who revealed to her that he was an alcoholic who had messed up his life. He apparently promised to give up drinking if she wrote a song about him (to which Williams rightfully responded that he should give up drinking because it’s a good idea, not because you might be immortalized in song). She hasn’t found him since, but she went ahead and wrote the song anyways.

Williams seemed pretty stoked to be playing not just her first SXSW show, but her first ever show in America, noting that it all seemed “pretty surreal” to her. She was definitely enjoying herself and played an impressive 30 minute set that showcased not only her indie pop sound and storytelling-based songwriting, but also a thrift shop inspired fashion sense – green striped track pants and a tassel-covered jacket. “This is so surreal, I can’t believe we’re here” she said later in the set, restating her disbelief about it all. That’s SXSW in a nutshell though – it all seems a bit surreal sometimes.