Lady Blackbird

Under the name Lady Blackbird, Los Angeles-based vocalist and composer Marley Munroe mixes original songs with updates of classic jazz ballads and deep soul cuts. She favored predominantly acoustic backing for Black Acid Soul (2021), a meditative debut album that followed well over a decade of behind-the-scenes work with artists across genres.
Munroe grew up listening to soul and gospel music through her parents, started singing at a very early age, and performed throughout her childhood at a variety of events in and around her native Farmington, New Mexico. A deal with a Christian music label at the age of 12 didn’t result in the release of any solo material, but she recorded with dc Talk and worked and toured extensively with that group’s TobyMac. Out of her contract in her late teens, she moved into secular music and established herself simultaneously as a recording artist and songwriter. Munroe landed a contract with Epic and issued a couple promotional retro-modern pop-soul singles in early 2013. However, she and the major label parted before a planned album reached the public.
Munroe had co-written two songs on Anastacia’s Resurrection album, collaborated with Joseph Arthur, and forged a creative partnership with producer Chris Seefried when, in February 2020, she introduced Lady Blackbird with a reverent if personalized version of Nina Simone’s “Blackbird.” In September 2021, a handful of subsequent singles under Munroe’s new jazz-oriented alias culminated in the album Black Acid Soul. ~ Andy Kellman