Award-Winning Songwriter MARINA ROCKS Turns Up the Heat on New EP

May 12, 2023 by 1888media

Kerrville New Folk Finalist, and Eddie’s Attic Song Shootout Winner, Marina Rocks has announced the release of ‘Texcentric,’ a riveting ode to her birthplace (and lifelong home) and an homage to the great Texas songwriters and musicians, past and present that have inspired her, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson (on the appropriately titled “Willie Hole” as a nod to the hole worn in the face of her trusty Godin guitar, mimicking Mr. Nelson’s) and Townes Van Zandt, who she covers once again with a sublime version of “If I Needed You.” Her last release, the album, 2022’s Austin to Houston, featured her moving take on Zandt’s “Nothin’.”

The cornerstone of the new 6-song Texas-centric collection (releasing July 14 via Two-Fisted Pixie Music), is the blistering anthem “Dummin’ Down,” which minces no messages in its forthright assessment,

I said they’re dummin down America
Dummin’ down TV
They’re dummin down the radio
They’re dummin to me
It’s raining down
It’s raining down, down, down, down on me
It’s raining down
Raining down, down, down, down on me

You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the girl. That’s what they say. Well, Marina Rocks is the perfect example of just such an idea. She may wander the world delivering her songs to audiences of all creeds and cultures, but as she does so, there is no small echo of her home state to be heard in her music, not to mention a deep love for it carried around in her heart. There’s a good reason why her forthcoming EP is called “Texcentric.”

But before that happens, you hold in your (virtual or otherwise) hands everything you need to know about this H-Town music maker and her Lone Star state of mind.

But a recording is nothing if it doesn’t capture the artist’s spirit, and this brace of songs does just that. At one extreme, you can hear her incendiary musical spirit at work and the visceral edge to her playing. At the other, a more considered and sensitive side emerges. And between those two extremes, she allows herself enough room to juggle blues, rock and pop and country and anything else she fancies to make her music. Genres? Why stick to just one?

And this broad musical spectrum she dances across has garnered comparisons from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Sheryl Crow, Lindsey Buckingham to Steve Vai.

“Dummin’ Down” is a closer look at the state of the nation, and indeed the state of the state she calls home, the darker flip side of a love letter to the place of her birth. A love letter, yes, but an honest one. And if you are going to declare yourself a true Texan troubadour, then why not do so by covering their most (in)famous, underground, outsider-country player, Townes Van Zandt, and a love song, in the more traditional sense, “If I Needed You.”

Other Texcentric signposts include the bass-driven Batman-theme boogie of “Nameless,” the emotion-soaked “Walking on Water,” a contemplative exploration that slithers in and out of the cosmic shadows, dancing within, and beyond, the realms of consciousness and EP closer, the instrumental “Blue Skies,” which draws inspiration from the dreamy expanse of Terlingua, a former quicksilver mining hub turned ghost town near the Rio Grande just north of the Mexican border.

To celebrate the release of the new single, available now on YouTube and all streaming platforms, Marina’s playing a special hometown gig (May 20) at The Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe in Galveston with the Cafe’s original owner, Wrecks Bell, and his wife Janet. Tix available at the door or in advance at the Old Quarter web site.

So, in person, or in private, time to affix your ten gallon hat and get better acquainted with her back catalogue before Texcentric stakes its claim and Ms. Rocks moves from “Texas’ best kept secret” to “Soon-to-be-National Treasure.”

Accolades

“Effusive energy brings to mind the sunny sounds of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” with hints of Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ tossed in for good measure.” – The Daily Ripple

“The kind of honest songwriting we’ve all been waiting for. But damn. Dat voice. It’s equal parts Bob Dylan, Patsy Cline and Etta James.” – Adobe & Teardrops

“With the distinguished energy of Melissa Etheridge, there’s never any slowing down at the curves. She’s damn good.” – Americana Highways

“Her style could be referred to SRV meets Steve Vai…possessing a natural ‘killer instinct’.” – Texas Blues Magazine

“Has more artist integrity than the last five American Idol winners combined.” – Houston Music News