MARY FAHL (of October Project) with her band
Saturday, May 13, 2023, 8 pm
The Ark, Ann Arbor
Tickets:$25
New and old music!
In an effort to find some light and comfort during these challenging times, singer/songwriter Mary Fahl looks back to some of the essential music that has brought her sustenance and clarity by reinterpreting songs from her greatest inspirations … Pink Floyd, George Harrison, Moody Blues, ELO, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others. For Mary, this is a tribute to the music that defined her as an artist.
With “a voice for the gods that can transport listeners to other realms” (Boston Globe), Mary Fahl is an expressive, emotional singer/songwriter who first achieved fame as lead singer and co-founder of the mid-1990s NYC- based chamber-pop group October Project, a band known for their lush harmonies, sweeping melodies and Fahl’s unique and powerful vocals. After two records on Epic, the band disbanded, but Fahl had more freedom to pursue her own muse, whether that meant writing and recording songs for movies (including the theme for the Civil War epic “Gods and Generals”), singing arias and medieval Spanish songs for Sony Classical or releasing a unique album-length take on “Dark Side of the Moon.”
Fahl’s music has a timeless quality that she conveys with an earthy, viscerally powerful contralto that bridges the generational gap between Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny and London Grammar’s Hannah Reid. Her elegant, cinematic songs have a hauntingly gothic romanticism that inspired renowned writer Anne Rice to portray Mary’s voice emanating from a dead woman’s room in her 2013 novel “The Wolves of Midwinter.”
Over the past few years, she’s been touring and recording on her own label, Rimar Records, and her recent releases have garnered awards including an Indie Acoustic Award for Best Live Album for “Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House” (filmed for PBS) and a 2020 Independent Music Award for her recent holiday album, “Winter Songs and Carols”. Her latest release, a Blu-ray 5.1 surround DVD, “From the Dark Side of the Moon,” brilliantly mixed by Bob Clearmountain, won the 2021 Immersive Album Audio Listener’s Choice award and was named “Immersive Album of the Year” by Life in Surround.
Now she returns with “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” a collection of songs that she calls “essential” to her development as an artist … “On top of all the madness that was happening in the world, I was grappling with the devastating loss of my mother and sister this past year and was feeling completely rootless. In an effort to find an anchor, a link to the past, a sense of home, I began to immerse myself in the comfort of music from my youth. These were such essential songs for me… like old friends… my musical home in many ways. I fell in love with each of them at the quintessential coming-of-age moment when music goes straight into your heart with no filter and these songs became part of my musical DNA… I learned to play guitar with several of them – especially the early Neil Young songs. Most of these covers come from the first albums I ever bought using one of those Columbia House ‘get 12 free albums for a $1’ mail order programs. I played these records endlessly… and the lyrics on many of these songs still have a powerful resonance for me.”
“The challenge for me and my producer Mark Doyle was to make each of these songs our own while paying tribute to their original greatness…,” says Fahl, “Along with a standard hi-res audio version, we wanted to bring these classics into a new light by utilizing the latest audio technologies to reinterpret my favorite Pink Floyd, Neil Young, George Harrison, Richard Thompson, Moody Blues, The Rolling Stones, ELO, Nick Drake, Judy Collins, and the Mamas and Papas songs in the brilliant, full immersive, high-resolution clarity of 5.1 surround.”
Mary further comments on her collaborator on this latest release, “Producer Mark Doyle and I first met around 2005 when he was the co-producer of ‘From the Dark Side of the Moon’ and he’s been my Music Director since 2013. Aside from the strings and drums, he played every instrument on this album. We recorded most of it at his home studio and a majority of the vocals are taken from the first time I auditioned these songs with Mark for the album… something I never would have done in my youth… but there’s something fresh, unstudied and unselfconscious about working that way. Mark has been essential to the process of helping me make these great songs my own without sacrificing the essence first captured by their original creators.”
Track List:
1) Can’t Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
2) Ruby Tuesday (The Rolling Stones)
3) Tuesday Afternoon (Moody Blues)
4) River Man (Nick Drake)
5) Got A Feelin’ (The Mama and the Papas)
6) Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)
7) Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
8) Since You’ve Asked (Judy Collins)
9) Beware of Darkness (George Harrison)
10) The Great Valerio (Richard & Linda Thompson)
Mary Fahl MG_0624-Edit-683×1024 med res.jpg
Here’s what the press has said about Mary Fahl:
“With her unmatched contralto voice, a heartfelt piece of herself firmly attached to every song, and her bravery in tackling revered favorites (Dark Side of The Moon, where she brilliantly re-imagined the entirety of the 1973 holy classic), Mary Fahl gives everything to fans.” – MUSIC TAP
“Mary Fahl’s striking voice with its wide range, rich, full-bodied amplitude and stately, formal tone, marks her as a first-rate smart-pop diva in the making. Fahl also has the artistic temperament and emotional radar to avoid the showy excesses of divadom.” – THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Mary Fahl has a voice for the gods that can transport listeners to other realms.” – BOSTON GLOBE
“Fahl’s voice has a transcendent and beautiful tone” – THE CELEBRITY CAFE
“One of the most distinctive voices in modern music has been singer Mary Fahl. While we love the ‘ethereal girls’ on Echoes, Mary Fahl is a powerhouse singer whose roots are more Grace Slick and Sandy Denny than Elizabeth Fraser and Suzanne Vega.” – JOHN DILIBERTO-ECHOES
“Mary Fahl is a diva in the best sense of the word. The former lead singer of October Project is a powerful, emotive vocalist who employs her wide range and dramatic flair in a way that never seems hammy or contrived.” – BILLBOARD
“It is hard not to fall for this Mary and her soul-permeating pipes…” – THE PORTLAND PRESS
To listen: www.maryfahl.com/oomh/
To purchase:
http://www.maryfahl.com/store/
ITunes: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1625285028?ls=1&app=itunes
Apple Music: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1625285028
For more information:
https://www.maryfahl.com
https://twitter.com/MaryFahlMusic
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100044794981066
https://www.instagram.com/maryfahlmusic/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV6tdHcWfmXRRFIcPR3IK1w
