Music is a way of communicating the reached beyond location. On Twitter, I met Donna Marie. I visited her YouTube channel and really enjoyed what she had posted and found the song “Run.” The video has a charm to it and works with the energy of country sound. Click play on “Run” and see if you get that energy too. Read about the Warrington, UK artist, Donna Marie, below.
Story Behind “Run”
In the words of Donna:
I’ve been madly in love with music my whole life but our relationship hasn’t always been plain sailing. As any independent artist will tell you, life as a musician can have as many lows as highs. Despite being one of the most important things in my life, music has broken my heart quite a few times. Some years ago, music and I separated and the ‘divorce’ wasn’t entirely amicable. We parted ways and I never expected to see it again.
In 2015, I felt that sufficient time had passed to take a chance and attempt to rekindle my former passion. I teamed up with producer John Kettle who was able to reignite a spark I thought I’d lost. John and I worked on ‘Run’ an old song I’d abandoned years before and together we managed to turn it into the fun, uplifting track I had always envisaged. That experience was enough to inspire me to record a full EP, my first release in almost a decade. The EP “Broken love” went into the iTunes Country charts at number 5 and it was this success that made me realise that my journey was in no way over.
As well as writing my own new material I now find myself co-writing with other artists. The shared experience of developing and shaping a new composition with another artist is now one of my favourite things and it continues to inspire my own songwriting.
I subsequently met Justin Johnson, drummer and producer for UK country artists such as Jade Halliwell, Raintown and Thorne Hill. Justin offered me the opportunity to play live with Thorne Hill and I jumped at the chance. We played a whole host of festivals and embarked upon a nationwide tour (my first ever) visiting places as far and wide as London to Scotland. I wasn’t sure how I’d take to life on the road in a small tour bus being cooped up with the band and tour manager but I absolutely loved it. The only downer was when the tour bus was broken into when we were on stage in London and most of the band and crew lost all of their personal belonging but still we didn’t let it stop us. We were a musical family and still are.
Through my experiences in playing with a number of artists on the scene I found myself landing a job as a musician for the touring theatre show ‘A Country Night In Nashville’. I am regularly playing in prestigious theatres such as The Kings theatre, Scotland and Liverpool Philharmonic hall. I truly love playing in this show but its not all huge theatres as I still play covers in small pubs to a crowd of sometimes 5 (including the bar staff) and often with the TV playing behind me but it’s all part of the life of a musician.
Donna Marie Bio
Quite a few years have passed since I first set foot on a stage but I now find myself at the most exciting time of my musical career. I’m still learning, I’m still creating but most importantly I’m still having fun. That’s exactly why I fell in love with music all those years ago. Join me as I embark upon my next chapter.