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Thirteen years since releasing her last album, ‘It Feels Good,’ Marks returns with ‘Our Country.’
Miko Marks never intended to record another album. After facing unsurmountable roadblocks as a Black singer navigating the Nashville country music scene in the early 2000s, Marks gave up her dream of recording. Instead, she focused on performing and her residency in Oakland, California at Overland. Thirteen years since releasing her last album, It Feels Good, Marks returns with Our Country.
The idea of recording new music came to Marks from songwriter and producer Justin Phipps. In 2019, Phipps shared a song he wrote called “Goodnight America.” The stripped down ballad details the idea of freedom in America and how certain freedoms aren’t provided for everyone.
“It was such a special song,” Marks tells me. “I had never done something that was so spot on for where we are in the world. I had to [record] this song.”
Marks recorded the song with Phipps and Steve Wyreman in early 2020. While Marks says she and her collaborators initially began recording on a song by song basis, by the time they completed four tracks they knew an album was in the works.
“It was really that organic,” she says. “It was something I didn’t even think to do.”
Our Country includes inspired covers like “Hard Times” mixed in with Marks’ originals like the deeply autobiographical “We Are Here” about the hardships those face living in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. Mavis Staples’ version of “Hard Times” inspired Marks to record her own interpretation as well as pushed her to finish writing a song about the suffering and marginalization of the people in her home state.
“Being in the pandemic and the weight of the world — the elections, the marginalization of the Black Lives Matter Movement — all these things came together to help me decide to do this song and to repurpose it,” she says of “Hard Times.”
While most of the songs on Our Country were already conceived before Covid-19, Marks says the songs speak to “where we are now and where we’ve been for quite some time.” The singer-songwriter says Our Country is the most important music she’s made to date.
Piano ballad “Mercy” is Marks’ prayer for the world. “Every day I hope to see some changes in the world that are for the better for everybody,” she says. “That’s probably one of the most important songs on the album because we need healing in a real way across the board for everyone. We’re all suffering in different ways, but we’re all suffering.”
The song’s personal lyrics include, “To raise up a nation/ We’re on our way.” As Marks explains, “there’s so much conversation happening right now about everything that’s wrong with our system. The part about us being on our way, it means there are changes being made. I can see them, I can hear them in conversations, I can hear solutions.”
While Marks says she sees changes being made in the country industry today, she admits to being disheartened when she was trying to find her way in her early career.
“No matter what I did, it didn’t really resonate in Nashville. So, I was discouraged,” she says. “That may be part of the reason why I stepped away from recording. … The amount of gatekeeping in Nashville was just astounding to me at that time. I was in my late 20s and I had no idea what I was up against.
“It’s refreshing today to see so many people of color making music and making a way for themselves like Breland, Mickey Guyton, Brittney Spencer, Rissi Palmer, Reyna Roberts. There were not that many when I was trying to make a go at it. There’s a unity and there’s a movement [now]. The listeners are actually using their voice to acknowledge these talented artists and that is a shift that I didn’t think I would see.”
In order for country music to achieve racial equality, Marks says there has to be systemic change in every sector. The labels, touring, the front office, the writing rooms all need to play their part and be inclusive, she says.
“There has to be some effort to include. Artists need to be signed, musicians need to be hired and represented across the board with touring. All around systemic change has to be implemented, not just talked about,” she stresses. “I’m waiting for the big record labels to stand up and acknowledge that there are people who like country music that aren’t just white people. They would serve themselves well to be more inclusive because that means more revenue for everyone.”
Despite her many hurdles as a new artist years ago, Marks says her love of singing kept her performing. “I wasn’t going to let the fact that I didn’t make this big splash deter me from what I do so well for me and for other people,” she says. “I love touching people and having a moment with them. That’s the beauty and the gift so that’ll never change.”
Our Country highlights Marks vast influences. With a blend of country music’s storytelling and elements of blues, gospel, roots and Americana, Our Country has Marks stepping out as a genreless artist. On each track she shares her life experience and wisdom with vivid lyrics, emotive vocals and captivating musical accompaniment.
On “Travel Light” she sings, “My dreams are growing older/ They never may come true.” Now in her 40s, Marks says it’s never too late to follow your dreams. “I feel young and vibrant and still in the game, happy to be back in the game of music and putting it out into the world for people to enjoy,” she says. “I thought it was too late, but clearly I was wrong. I’m just taking it day by day as it comes and really trying to slow the moment down and enjoy the music that we’re creating.”
Marks promises there won’t be another 13 year wait for new music. “I’ve got to keep making music for as long as I can make it.”
“No matter what happens, I am excited that I came back around full circle and didn’t just coast off into the sunset. I’m glad I came back, and I made another album. It showed me I could do it when I had doubts,” she says. “The fact that I did it and I put my truth down in a timeless way … I can’t even put words around it really. I could go to my grave being really glad I did this one.”
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