Miko Marks

Miko Marks walks the line separating mainstream country and Americana, creating a distinctive amalgam of American sounds informed by her experience as a Black woman singing country. When Marks first appeared in the mid-2000s, she had a traditionalist bent, but when she reemerged with her backing band the Resurrectors in 2020, her music expanded to encompass soul, blues, and folk while remaining rooted in country. Her deepened palette was showcased on albums like 2021′s Our Country and its 2022 follow-up, Feel Like Going Home, which she released with the Resurrectors.
A native of Flint, Michigan, Miko Marks was immersed in music as a child, singing gospel in church and madrigal choir in high school. She attended Grambling State University in Louisiana before settling in San Francisco, where she worked as a legal secretary and started a family. In the early 2000s, Marks won a radio singing contest, which convinced her to attempt to pursue a career in country music. She remained in the San Francisco area as she assembled a Nashville publicity team to assist in the independent release of her debut album Freeway Bound in 2005. The video for the single “Mama” featured a cameo from Erykah Badu, who was an old friend from Grambling. It earned enough attention to get Marks awarded Best New Country Artist at the New Music Weekly Awards in 2006.
Marks quickly followed Freeway Bound with It Feels Good in 2007, a record with a brighter, poppier feel. It was the last record she’d release for a decade, but she’d continued to make music, playing regularly at the Bay Area club Saddle Racks and gigging throughout the area.
Marks quietly returned with “Roll Out” in 2019, which was followed by “Goodnight America” in 2020. Written by Justin Phipps, a former member of her live backing band, “Goodnight America” reignited Marks’ passion for music. That year, she formed the Resurrectors with Phipps and Steve Wyreman, another former member of her supporting band who founded Redtone Records with Phipps.
Miko Marks & the Resurrectors released a pair of subsequent singles, “Travel Light” and “Ancestors,” before issuing the full-length album Our Country, which appeared on the Redtone label in 2021. It was followed a year later by another full-length, Feel Like Going Home. During the supporting tour for Feel Like Going Home, Marks made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry in October 2022. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine