Marybeth D’Amico | Singer/Songwriter in Germany

November 11, 2008

Interview with Marybeth D'Amico: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Incredible voice & spirit in Marybeth D’Amico’s newest record. We spoke to her in Germany. More about Marybeth D’Amico from her website:

Marybeth’s songs combine the dark storytelling of folk, the melancholy feel of country and a melodic pop sensibility. Emotion-driven songs along the lines of Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams or Lori McKenna.

“A first-rate ten-song debut…a mature performance, both lyrically and musically: truly recommended.” Frank Ipach, hooked-on-music, Germany

“… Marybeth is reminiscent of Kathleen Edwards. Her debut CD is very convincing.”
Cultural Podium Roepaen, Holland

An American singer-songwriter who lives in Germany, Marybeth D’Amico came to songwriting relatively late in life. But she makes up for it with the passion she puts into her music. In 2002 the journalist had lost her job as an editor at an Amsterdam-based magazine. With some time on her hands, the wife and mother of two, who had recently taken up the guitar, began penning her first songs on the living room couch. The discovery of singer-songwriter Patty Griffin gave her songwriting a jolt. “What struck me was how emotionally riveting yet simple to play her songs were,” says Marybeth. She began hungrily studying the songwriting craft not only of Griffin, but other singer-songwriters she admired, such as Lori McKenna, Kathleen Edwards, Antje Duvekot and Deb Talan.

Though drawn to dark themes, Marybeth did not want her songs to sound somber; she loved the melodic pop music she grew up listening to like the Beatles, the Eagles, CSNY, the Mamas and the Papas, the Beach Boys, Carole King, James Taylor and Carly Simon. Music also played a prominent part in her early life, whether she was harmonizing with her siblings to the Peter Paul and Mary albums in their parents’ record collection, starring in her high school musical or playing flute in the band.

By late 2003, Marybeth was singing at open mics in Munich and had co-founded an alt-country band, Far From Home. In 2006 she released the five-song solo EP, “Waiting to Fly,” produced by German Americana artist Markus Rill. The EP was well-received by reviewers and Marybeth played numerous gigs in Bavaria with her own band and in a duet formation, as well as touring Holland in October 2007.

In July 2008 Marybeth released her first full-length album, “Heaven, Hell, Sin & Redemption”. The first reviews have already been very promising. The album debuted at #10 in the August 2008 Euro Americana Charts, and reviewer Frank Ipach, hooked-on-music, called it “a first-rate ten-song debut.” Produced by Buda, Texas-based Bradley Kopp (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Iain Matthews, Eliza Gilkyson), Marybeth is accompanied on guitar and vocals by top-notch musicians such as Lloyd Maines on pedal steel and dobro, Richard Bowden on violin, David Webb on keyboards, Paul Pearcy on drums, and Bradley Kopp on bass, guitars, and backing vocals. The album’s dark title comes from the characters that inhabit the songs: from the single mom who can’t seem to settle in one place to the minister involved in a sex scandal; the young couple that decides to break away from a fundamentalist upbringing to the true-to-life story of a guy sitting on Death Row in Ohio. But no cause for depression here: most of the melodies are infectious and will have listeners humming along.

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