Posts Tagged ‘marian call’

Remember the "Sing a Song of Saffron" contest last year? It was won by Marian Call with her wonderful "It was Good For You Too."

Last year she also released a CD of her work called "Vanilla," with a special Browncoat edition that included the winning Saffron song along with her other amazing music.

And now QMx has declared her their "QMx Artist of the Month" in their latest Insider newsletter. Way to go Marian! And if you haven't gotten her CD yet, there's only about 30 left of the Browncoat version. E-mail her at mariancall@mac.com to get one, and ask about autographs. You can also visit her site at www.mariancall.com, or listen to her music at www.myspace.com/mariancall . And really, you should. She'll be big soon, and you'll want to get the CD now before it's going for hundreds on eBay.

While the Sing a Song of Saffron contest was going on, I didn't link to the entrants' web pages so you guys wouldn't be biased one way or another. But hey, contest is over! There are some great CDs out there, so let's check 'em out. First up: Marian Call's Vanilla.

Marian won the contest with "It Was Good For You Too" with unanimous praise from the judges, and with damn good reason. She has the voice of an angel: pure, clear, strong, and capable of wiping out a city. Talent, great song-writing ability, and a sense of humor: Marian Call is the anti-Britney.

There's a strong Firefly feel here. "Dark Dark Eyes" is about River, the stray "gorram" pops up, and these songs have a goal we identify with: there's a strong female character here. A lot of them, really. There's the one who's afraid she doesn't love enough, and the one that surrenders her heart completely. There's the one who rather wistfully wishes she was sexy and the one who delivers a verbal smackdown to a phony. My favorite songs are "Vanilla (I'm Not Sexy)" which describes my wife's self-image perfectly, and "Flying Feels Like" which should be riding the Top 40 if Billboard had any taste left. And you will be unable to not sing along with her cover of Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning." Just give in, you'll get a headache trying to hold out. Head to her MySpace page for some samples, and more will be available at her web page soon.

(A quick description for Buffy fans: if she had been doing this 10 years ago, Marian would have been on stage at the Bronz, with the kind of lyrical songs that would have continued to play even as focus moved to Buffy and friends wrestling with personal issues. Also, she rocks.)

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And about time, too. Actually I have to confess, I've known the winners for two weeks now, but while I knew which songs were chosen by Christina Hendricks, Cedric of The Bedlam Bards, and myself, I was really hoping to include Ms. Hendricks' actual notes. She gushed over them all (sample quote: "God, these people are amazing! I was telling Morena about it, it's just fantastic. I want a CD of this!") but wanted time to flesh out her notes since she had jotted them down whenever she had time. However, her new show "Mad Men" (Thursday nights at 10 on AMC) is getting huge reviews and record-breaking ratings — and richly deserves both – and she's been a bit swamped, so rather than keep everyone hanging I'm going to announce the winners and add the rest of her comments whenever they come in. 

First off I want to say that I'd have been happy with any of the songs winning, they were that good. I know, everyone running a contest says something schmaltzy like that, but come on. These were way beyond what I was hoping for, and I had pretty high hopes. I got exactly what I wanted out of this contest: some great songs about a lady who definitely deserved them. So… Read the rest of this entry »

"Never Did Catch Her Name (But She’s My Wife)"
by Marian Call
(Listen to it here) 

Well, she caught my eye on Daedelus
And I couldn’t look away
Imagine my surprise when she told me
That she felt the same way
That night she promised she’d be mine
And she swept me off my feet
And for eighteen golden hours there
My rapture was complete

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I knew MySpace only allows you to post 4 MP3s, but until I tried last night I was unaware that they don't like you linking to MP3 hosting sites, either. After trying several times and failing to embed more songs in my posts there, I gave up and hunted around for another hosting option.

The Saffron MP3s are now at imeem.com. You have to be a member to hear them there (registration is free) but I've also collected all of them on a page here at SerenityStuff and that's where you'll find new ones as I get them. I do want to set them up so they can be downloaded easily; I'll keep checking around for hosting.

And you'd better check back, they're coming in fast now. Just added three more: "Soliloquoy" by Satori (a smoky torch song), "Every Time You Stow Away" by Jesse Graber (a barbershop number), and "It Was Good For You Too" by Marian Call (a bluesy piece).

And a couple more filks: Ziv Gur-Arye contributed "The Husbands’ Lament" (to the tune of "Early One Morning") and "Yo-Saff-Bridge" (to the tune of "Mandy"), and J.M. Harmon continued his filking dominance with "Somebody to Love" (to the tune of "Somebody" by Depreche Mode). 

Just 11 days left! I've heard some big talking from people still working on theirs but time's running out…
 

"It Was Good For You Too" by Marian Call
(Listen to it here)

Don't you cry now, sweetie
Just you put that gun away
All I did was play the part
you wanted me to play

You thought that you were handsome
and strong, and good in bed
I just agreed with you
and you swallowed every word I said

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