Acclaimed Seattle vocalist, entertainer, and songwriter releases her latest sweet, playful new album, Starlight Smoochy Smoochy, bridging roots, blues, and pop
(YourDigitalWall Editorial):- Seattle, Washington Dec 13, 2022 (Issuewire.com) – Mary McPage is an acclaimed Seattle-area music mainstay whose knockout vocals, clever songwriting, and musicianship all combine with a dash of whimsy and humor to make her one of the region’s most popular entertainers for over two decades. Her music has always offered a sophisticated rootsy mix of blues, pop, jazz, and folk, and her latest album, Starlight Smoochy Smoochy, is another landmark, releasing now on CD, digital download, and all major streaming platforms.
With a discography that combines Mary’s rich, powerful vocals with shimmering harmonies and superb musicians, her work has crossed genres with ease for over two decades. Now comes Starlight Smoochy Smoochy as Mary’s most exciting, joyous, and accomplished work yet. And it’s all thanks to COVID and the lockdown!
“This album is a direct result of lockdown,” comments Mary McPage. “So there I am. It’s COVID, everything is closed, and there’s nowhere to go except to the living room and look at my husband; I might have to kill him. Luckily, instead, I bought a ukulele–and used YouTube to learn how to play the darned thing!”
The rest is history. Mary’s new “lockdown ukulele” ended up inspiring the entire album, which includes the ukulele substituting wherever an acoustic or electric guitar might have been used in the past. The resulting mix of songs is an irresistible combination of bright, playful up-tempo numbers, bittersweet ballads, and whimsical odes, all given a sweeter edge by the strummings and pluckings of Mary’s ukelele (no guitars were used on the album at all). Notable tracks include the happy, dreamy island-flavored title track, the gentle country-tinted family tribute of “Elverta’s Song, the rock-flavored “A Fool Don’t Care” (a remake of one of Mary’s previous Ozmosis songs from the 1990s), the heartfelt ballad “Unconditionally,” and the joyful “Groovy Kinda Something” to bring it all home.
Mary has won fans and listeners throughout the Northwest for her combination of rich vocals, skilled musicianship, sweet melodies, and sense of play. Her music encompasses a rootsy, playful melding of blues, pop, rock, folk, and even a dash of country, and in 2009 she was awarded a Best of the Blues (BB) Award as Performer of the Year from the Washington Blues Society. Her past albums include Wood, Steel & Guts, Drink with the Band, Raw @ The Knot, Leaving Oz, In Dog Years (with Blue Hoo), and On the Surface (with Ozmosis).
Starlight Smoochy Smoochy was recorded at Studio Rob in Everett, where Mary worked with Producer/Arranger/Bassist Robert Baker, who is an alumnus of Bob Rivers’ Twisted Tunes, where he engineered the second Twisted Tunes Christmas album, I am Santa Claus). Contributing musicians include Mary on vocals, accordion, triangle, banjolele, and tenor, concert, and soprano nylon string ukuleles, as well as Robert Baker (bass drum, electric bass, double bass, bells, tambourine, and keyboard), Angelo Ortiz (percussion), Robert Morrill (drums), Sandy Carter (pedal steel), CD Woodbury (Steel String Electric Concert Lead Ukulele), Jeffrey Morgan (organ), as well as a rollicking horn section (Ron Hendee, Mike Marinig, and Bill Blackstone) and with Marilyn Beebe and Alexandra Seelye with Mary herself on backing vocals.
The album is available for purchase on CD ($14.65) at Amazon, and for purchase and listening via such digital formats as Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and YouTube.
