The newest songbird to flit onto the Welsh music scene is Narberth-raised Jodie Marie. Fully embracing the seventies feel inspired by her clear and classic voice, Jodie Marie is set to become the Joan Baez, the Joni Mitchell or the Carole King of the contemporary singer-songwriter scene.
Influenced in her early childhood by blues and Bonnie Raitt, Jodie Marie’s debut single Single Blank Canvas is an emotional and nostalgic number with a mellow, layered backing that highlights her distinctive voice and technique. As the sixties and seventies re-emerge once again onto the alternative scene, Jodie Marie’s musical influences, and image to match, place her at the forefront of the fashionable pop world. Signed to Decca records, who have produced acts as massive as Nina Simone to the Velvet Underground, Marie is in good company and is sure to be a hit with retro-chic music fans as well as with those lovers of gentle, emotive folk tunes with a hint of soul; prettily executed and easy to listen to. This passage will be made an awful lot easier by the fact that her lyrics and music have an emotional depth and intensity of one considerably older than her mere nineteen years.
The hitherto unsung (excuse the pun) daughter of the local plumber was discovered by chance by Transgressive Management when the father of singer Toby L, on a trip to visit his Narberth roots, was urged by his landlady to check out the local girl’s unique sound. She was already a hit back home and it wasn’t long before she was in the studio working with some of the biggest names in the industry (Bernard Butler, Ed Harcourt) to record her her upcoming album of single-take songs. Her sweet and soulful voice is complimented by a smooth blend of string overdubs to create a sound that hints at the blues music on which she was raised, whilst managing to retain an up-to-date pop feel.
Jodie Marie’s debut album Mountain Echo is due to be released sometime in the new year and her single Single Blank Canvas can be heard at her website jodiemarie.co.uk alongside her latest release On The Road. JA
