Rick and Marilyn, Introduction to Marilyn

I had just finished college, which had taken up all my time for six years or more. All of a sudden, a person, living alone, with great energy, had NOTHING to do after finishing the day's work. Cleaning can only just go so far :).

How to fill time? I love music, and all my life I wanted to create music. It seemed, since I was still in intense learning mode, now would as good a time as ever to actually pick it up.

So, I had a friends guitar I had bought, and found a teacher, who will forever be credited for really getting me into this mess! I think he likely has no idea what impression he made on me. He was a music teacher in the Chatham schools, raising a family and doing lessons on the side for the extra money. I told him I had no talent but a great deal of love. He asked me if I was willing to work. He asked me if I can hear music in my head when nothing is playing. He told me, talent is ok, but work is better. If you work, you can learn. And so, I worked……

I played mostly Neil Young songs, and I think you can hear that sometimes in my writing. I started hanging out with other Neil Young fans and learning more songs. I took a weekend course on Neil Young and met my next important mentor, David Hodge. He taught me about work but he also taught me about sharing music and how music is a community. It was at a workshop of his that I first played publicly as an adult. I failed miserably, but I survived to do it again, and again, and again……

People tell me they like my joy on stage... the energy i put out there... my singing is something that makes them pay attention. There are a bunch of people that I like making sounds with, but the one that comes out with me most is Rick Warren, guitar wizard from Pluto. I really think he adds a lot to the songs that I sing. I like to say that he tells the rest of the story, the heart part, on his guitar….

We have brought our music to most of the local farmers markets. We get asked back regularly by area festivals in Austerlitz and Stuyvesant as well as bars in Philmont and Ausable Forks. And now, we are looking to play for YOU. We play catchy melodic original pieces that I write and covers spanning the 40’s to current, with a concentration on material from the 60’s to 80’s…. so we appeal strongly to the boomer crowd. We are also versatile. Our setlists can be all original, all covers, all Neil Young, or a mix of them all. We can play as a duo or a rock band. Your choice. Please take a look of our setlist songs elsewhere here, and note that we are always adding…..

I love making people move and sing and participate in the music, even if just by listening. Music heals, it talks, it rallies, it expresses, it soothes, it shouts….. And I love sharing it. Let me sing for you….. We will all have a good time….