Album Notes

Ms. Marcus has been writing, performing, and recording music for more than 10 years. Music is no longer something she does; music is how she sees the world, and her songs are how she makes sense of what goes on. A bona fide addiction to blank books, some really fantastic people she has met, and a few other things have contributed to her motivation. She has settled in Seattle by way of New Mexico, Virginia and Paris, mainly because she has to be near the mountains—like the John Denver song.

In addition to writing and playing and recording the music, Ali releases it independently on her own label, on her own terms. Her music industry involvement ranges from record label employee to freelance music critic to studio engineering.

Music, for Ms. Marcus, is a community that brings happiness and comfort to people. It challenges, it persuades, it reminds, it inspires, and it will make your hair stand on end. Anything she can do to continue in that tradition, she will.

"Miles and Miles and Miles" is an album of place. Maps, views, directions, roots and gazes, really. There's no sense of home in this one, nor is there a sense of travel, but instead a thorough confidence that the places we've been are also the ones we are in. Dylan's "roadmaps for the soul" or the ultimate rejection of Chapman's "fast car." As for the songs, it is the bookends - "The Most Autobiographical Song" and "Riding My Bicycle" - that are the truest songs I've ever recorded. All the rest are open books.