Miko Marks refuses to take a break. Her highly anticipated single “Feel Like Going Home” (March 25, 2022) will be released almost exactly one year after Our Country was released and approximately six months following the Race Records EP. The track is one she has been performing live and feels a deep connection to. “Whenever we perform it, certain lines just resonate deep in my spirit as I sing them. “Rest for the wanderer who never more shall roam.” I’m the wanderer, and now I feel like I don’t have to roam anymore. “Years that I have wasted feel just like a dream” and “Now the time is coming to reap what I have sown.” Those lines just feel like where I really am. I’ve come back to my true self after trying to figure out who and how to be in the world and in the music industry. Where I am right now, just feels right” Marks says of the song.
While Miko Marks is no newcomer, Our Country (via Redtone Records), was her first album in 13 years, so her name may be fresh to the uninformed. In 2003, Marks made her way to Music City - Nashville, TN - playing CMA fest year after year and fully immersing herself in the country music community. While marks received well-deserved accolades - "Nashville's hottest new country star" by People Magazine and “Best New Country Artist” by New Music Weekly - her efforts to be fully embraced by the industry in return proved to be elusive. While her crowd of supporters grew year after year, so did efforts from the industry to diminish her success. “In trying to pursue the gates of Nashville, I discovered that there were high fences made of stone,” Marks said of her experience in the early 2000s. She ultimately landed in California and focused on her family, but never gave up on the dream she was devoted to.
Miko Marks proves to be a bonafide maverick that has blazed an unprecedented trail in the music industry. After a long overdue hiatus from music, Marks is eager to spread not only her music, but a message of unity and outspokenness for Black musicians in country music and beyond. She has done much more than just make a splash and now she is ready to make waves. Marks works towards an ever evolving dream of creating art that is not stereotyped or pigeonholed by a specific genre and is created with no borders or boundaries. Our Country was released in march 2021 and garnered praise from NPR, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Billboard, among others. Marks continued to release music via Redtone Records with an EP release, Race Records, which came out in October 2021. Race Records was a compilation of cover songs that pay homage to the blend of genres we now recognize as country music.
In January of 2022, Marks was named to CMT’s “Next Women of Country” class of 2022. The network has pledged to support her throughout the year. Marks is currently on tour supporting Tedeschi Trucks Band and Ron Pope and is playing major festivals throughout the summer.