# Charted on the Euro Americana Charts
VOTED IN TOP 20 BEST ALBUMS OF 2006 - FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE - USA
"RECOMMENDED ALBUMS OF 2005" in BELGIUM.
"TOP 100 ALBUMS OF 2005" in BELGIUM.
Album named "Flavour of the Month" in the Netherlands
Australian Artist Marisa Yeaman’s songs often speak of journeys, whether they be the one’s taken physically or emotionally, an imagery of people, places, and feelings spoken with an honesty that only comes from experience.
That journey for this talented singer/songwriter began at the age of four, when her adventurous parents sold their house and packed life as they knew it into a somewhat large caravan to travel around Australia.
They were leaving the historic riverboat port of Echuca, where Marisa’s father was a builder and her mother worked aboard one of the paddlesteamers which took cruises on the mighty Murray river.
It was the seventies, and what was to be a working holiday became a lifestyle as Marisa found herself in the classroom of the road. There was the vastness of the Australian outback, the diversity of the people, and a whole palette of experiences to soak in. The Australian landscape is both rugged and isolated, and the family traversed the country over thousands of miles of unmade roads, many night’s were spent camping by the roadside under the endless blanket of stars.
Long hours on the road were often spent with the young, close knit family singing songs together as the miles passed. For Marisa and her sister, her early schooling was by correspondence, and taught by her mother around the dinner table. With lessons being posted ahead to the nearest large town for collection when the family came through.
Marisa says, "We had a TV, but never plugged it in unless we were in a major city, so the radio was often our only contact with the world outside our own. The music of the times was a lot of acoustic stuff - Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Fleetwood Mac and the like,and my dad loved acoustic instrumental music, so I guess that's where the love affair with the guitar began". Marisa sings about this time of her life in songs like "No Fences".
As a young child that exposure to the diverse lives of other people, helped to shape the social conscience and understanding of the human condition that Marisa often brings to her work. Whilst most children learn about life from books, Marisa was visiting remote places and seeing “life” up close.
The tragic loss of her father at thirteen, sparked the songwriter within to emerge, and from that point on her songwriting has remained a constant and driving passion.
Marisa is a singer/songwriter in the purest sense, she is inspired by the great confessional songwriters, and open artistically and musically to exploration, naturally drawn to earthy/roots-based music. Her vocal style soars and soothes. Part poet, part musician, Marisa provides a potent mix.
A seasoned live performer, Marisa often has the audience hanging upon her every word as the narratives unfold. She can make listeners laugh, cry, dream, and feel, as her honesty touches the humility in us all.
Pure Motive is the Marisa’s Self-produced standout debut album. This acoustic based recording showcases 13 beautifully crafted songs by this artist who crosses borders seemlessly from Blues to Country to Folk and beyond. It is a gem for lovers of fine acoustic music.
After wrestling with the artistic constraints of the commercial record business, Marisa withdrew to follow her heart to make the album the way she felt it should sound, organic, passionate and real. It was a serendipitous record made with the right people coming together at the right time, and the creative sparks that flew, were beautifully and timelessly captured.
'Pure Motive’ oozes with all the heart and spontaneity that usually is only captured in live performance. The album features some smouldering guitar work by ARIA winning guitarist and Co-Producer Andrew Pendlebury, along with performances by some of Australia’s finest musicians.
Whether it is the storytelling of songs like 'No Fences’, 'Solid Ground’, 'Another Day" or the intimate confessions of songs like 'Little Girl Lost’ or 'Lonely Puppet’, Marisa's work provides great social and personal commentary.
'Pure Motive’ harks back to a time when artists made records as a body of work, when an album was a series of tracks that provided a collective experience. There is no weak link in this chain... European Roots Publication Mazz Musikas gave it the rare accolade of “All Hits - No Misses”.
The album draws from a rich palette of roots based sounds, with elegant touches of many traditional instruments including Pedal Steel, Dobro and Harmonica. The understated production, allows the songs to breathe and resonate in the corners of the mind and heart. Some are just simply treated with guitar or piano and vocal, and some tracks are framed beautifully with the instrumentation of a full band.
Devoid of hype and studio trickery, the listener is made to feel more like a silent witness to each performance. Here spawns the sound of an artist who has found her own voice against the tide of fashion and fads, with a purity bred of deep individuality that only an upbringing like hers can claim.
Marisa Yeaman is an artist who 'flys under the radar’ creating integrity through the substance and fervour she puts into all her work, who has been quietly laying the foundations of what promises to be a lengthy and credible recording career. Discover for yourself the versatility and passion of this great talent 'rising up from Down Under’.
“ An unusually well recorded acoustic album -
tastefully produced and compelling songs”
- Bluewater Music, Nashville USA
“Marisa’s album is sonically beautiful, her voice, lyrics,
accompaniment are all first class”
- 8CCCFM
“While many artists are developing their craft, for Yeaman, all the components seem to be in place.” - Australian Musician
“The songs themselves, like the novels of Tim Winton, seem to be hewn from a specific sense of place, one that is universal but nonetheless rooted”
- AmericanaUK
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