Saturday July 13, 2024

Linda Marks Songs from the heart touch the heart. And as we are touched we feel a full range of feelings, which move us to heal, connect and take meaningful action. Through her original songs and other songs that inspire her to cover them, piano playing singer-songwriter Linda Marks brings her whole heart to music, reaching the heart of the audience. Linda is a multi-genre artist anchored in contemporary folk, integrating elements of jazz, gospel, pop, and Latin in her songwriting arrangements. Over the past decade, she has played many of Boston’s top venues including Scullers Jazz Club, Club Passim, The Burren, City Winery, Club Cafe and Ryles, as well as participating in festivals and performing arts series like the Newton Festival of the Arts, the Rhode Island Folk Festival and the Boston Public Library. Linda has both performed at and written songs especially for fundraisers and non-profits such as Buddy Dog Humane Society, Upstage Lung Cancer, Charity Umbrella and the Cat Connection, Casa Myrna and RESPOND. She has been featured in the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine and Metrowest Daily News, and on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” Linda has released ten albums, nine with award-winning Doug Hammer of DreamWorld Productions. Her first of two pandemic albums, Monuments Of Love was released at a triple album release concert at the Burren on 8/1/21. Her second pandemic album, Home, was released digitally on 11/25/21, and as a special CD mastered by Grammy award winning sound engineer Glenn Barratt of Morningstar Studios on 01/01/22. Home charted at #18 on the Folk Chart for January 2022 (Folk DJ's, Folk Alliance International). Linda released her 13th studio album Every Day Legends, on 01/01/23, and it spent over 8 month on the Roots Music Report Folk Charts. Her 14th studio album A Recipe For Hope will be released 01/01/24. Building community through music and the arts has been a lifelong commitment. Linda co-founded artist-alliance group Women In Music Gathering, created the Music Salon as an intimate house concert series in 2014, and pivoted to grow it as an online community during the pandemic. To provide upliftment during pandemic times, Linda has been playing a weekly lifestream, "Songs From The Heart, Meditations For The Heart" on her personal Facebook pages since March 2020. She leads the International Singer Songwriter Association (ISSA) Boston (Northeast) Chapter, and won the 2023 ISSA Award for Best Representative USA. Linda is a member of the Recording Academy, Class of 2022 (Grammys), and is a Big Records Artist. Autumn Sol, an acoustic duo, is Heather Dee and Steve Roy. Autumn Sol began with one question from Heather to Steve: “Do you play guitar?” Steve said, “I sure do, why do you ask?” Heather told Steve she had written lyrics to a song for her sister Mary who had passed away and she wanted to put them to music. As Heather read the words and Steve strummed, Mary’s Song came together just as Heather had envisioned. It was evident from the beginning that together their purpose was found. The creative process was as natural as breathing and together Autumn Sol was created! In those early days, many nights were spent jamming and rehearsing and creating new music. At those jam sessions Heather would bring new lyrics, written or just singing them on the fly and Steve would bring a new chord progression or new lyrics from random ideas scribbled in a notebook and the ingredients to what would become their songs began to come together. Luckily, they had recorded some of those sessions on video. With VHS no longer available, those tapes were transformed to digital and became the basis for the songs on their soon-to-be-released album. From performing on many diverse stages over the years to meeting EJ Ouellette of Whole Music Studios who helped them put their music on record for posterity, Heather and Steve are excited to bring the music of Autumn Sol to everyone. Heather Dee is from North Andover, Massachusetts. Her love of music began at an early age singing with her grandfather. In her school days, Heather was in the school band, chorus and drama with a focus on musical theater and teaching. During those years she also was in the choir whose director, Edward B. Gammons, was from The Royal School of Church Music, London England. Heather’s Mother, Father and sister also sang with the Andover Choral Society many years, performing Handel’s Messiah, under the direction of John Everett Collins. Steve Roy is from Amesbury, Massachusetts. His love of music began as a small child listening to his father practicing with his barbershop quartet in the kitchen of their home and his mother playing records and singing. His sister and brother are singers, and his brother is also a drummer. Many family gatherings were spent around the table working on harmonies and singing. Steve was in the school band and the chorus and then during his college years played guitar in the streets and subways of Boston MA. Being legally blind from birth had a great influence on Steve’s songwriting and performance.