A second album of home recordings, The Saga of Mayflower May, was released the
following year, and has garnered the same acclaim as did Ballads of Living and Dying,
with Pitchfork calling it simply an "enthralling album".
Both albums were released in the UK in early 2005 by Beautiful Happiness Records,
meeting the same response overseas as they had in the States, with the Guardian calling
Ballads “uncommonly lovely... hard to get out of your head".
Signing to Peacefrog Records, Marissa released her third official full length record,
"Songs III Bird On the Water' in March 2007 and in the US through Kemado Records on
7th August. Uncut, Mojo, The Times, The Guardian, Wire, Plan B, Pitchfork and many
more were all united in their praise.
It was inevitable that Marissa would rise from the underground to reach a wider audience
someday. Her music is dreamy and spectral: an amalgam of traditional folk, paisley
underground, shoegaze and dream pop. Almost all of the songs are very sad – about
broken hearts, death, or simple burdens. Her voice is what most people immediately
respond to, with the writing and playing yielding a slow burn subtlety.
Excelling at a Fahey-esque fingerpicking technique, she plays homage to some of the
great early American blues players. The Basho-like 12-string guitar movements are also
quite lovely.
She sings songs of the sea, the haunting chansons of maidens, the cowboy ditties of
ranchers, and the funerary processions of mourners. The eerie quality of her atmospheric
music gives her songs a timelessness and sadness that is often described as other worldly.
It appears up until now her music has been a widely respected but finely kept secret.
Marissa is currently writing new material for release in 2008.
