Dallas-born, Chicago-based Marian Runk is a dancer, birdwatcher, visual artist, political activist, writer, and musician. Often compared to Karen Dalton and Gillian Welch, the breadth of this creativity is felt in every aspect of her music.
NEW SINGLE
“New Year” is out now!
NEW ALBUM
Two Wires and a Spark is out now!
Marian featured on The Great American Folk Show ep. 116
Listen at the top of the episode for two tunes from her new album Two Wires and a Spark, and some musings on music and life.
Press for Marian’s new album, Two Wires and a Spark
Marian Runk brings a novelist’s pen to Two Wires and a Spark. Dallas-born and Chicago-based, Runk turns her lens on the peculiarities of Midwestern culture: Bible-thumping Mennonites, burned-out towns, cold winters, Rust Belt ennui. This is by no means a downer of an album, though: Runk tells these stories alongside a vintage folk and jazz sound, suggesting that the bad things don’t have to weigh you down.
-Rachel Cholst, from album review at Rainbow Rodeo Magazine
[Marian Runk’s] sophomore album, co-produced by Steve Dawson, is a lyrical delight, full of intriguing images and captivating stories.
-Andrew Frolish, Americana UK
Press for Marian’s debut album, A Few Feet From the Ground
“[A Few Feet from the Ground] sounds like poetry set to classic country music. Runk’s soprano voice is like honey and her tunes are full of hooks.”
- Tony Breed,CHIRP Radio
“Marian Runk writes uncannily vivid lyrics. The lovely country- and folk-inflected songs on her debut album, A Few Feet From the Ground, make it easy to picture her characters: the undertaker with a bad toupee in the sparse, dusty "Crowell," for instance, and the lovelorn snow goose pining for a missing companion in the moving ballad "The Loneliest Birds."
-J.R. Nelson (Gossip Wolf), Chicago Reader
Photo by Latham Zearfoss
Photo by Gillian Fry
Photo by David Sameshima
Photo by Latham Zearfoss
Dallas-born, Chicago-based Marian Runk’s life-long fascination with storytelling evolved from book arts and comics to songwriting and performing. A dancer, birdwatcher, visual artist, political activist, writer, and musician; the breadth of her creativity is felt in every aspect of her music.
Two Wires and a Spark, Runk’s sophomore album, is filled with the powerful imagery you expect from someone with such a diverse artistic background. Often compared to Karen Dalton and Gillian Welch, Runk writes lyrics that cover an expanse of themes, including loneliness, (mis)communication, living alongside addiction, dealing with grief, and road trips through the Rust Belt.
