Coast 2 Coast Closeup – Merle Marlow Band

When you are listening to the first notes of “Western Sky”, you could think that the lead-singer of the Merle Marlow Band was born in Tennessee or even Alberta.

But Merle Marlow was actually born in Chatou, a small municipality near Paris (France … not Paris, Tennessee !).

“I was very lucky to travel to the US with my grand-parents, my parents and my brother when I was a kid. We were always on the road with our rental vans, and every time we would turn on the radio, there was country music blasting out of the speakers. Country music has always been a part of my life ” is explaining the 33-year old singer-songwriter.

Since moving to Montreal in 2015, Merle Marlow has performed with various country cover bands, before founding the Merle Marlow Band in 2019 with other seasoned musicians of the Québec new-country scene.

Their very first single, “Tiki Bar Memories” has been played on several country stations across Canada, and in Europe.

The five musicians were initially planning to record their next song in Nashville, with an established producer, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to change their plans.

“It was impossible to go to Nashville to record our song, so we looked for a studio and producer, here in Québec, that would be able to reach the Nashville standards we had in mind for our song. We met Marc-André Donais, co-owner of the Réservoir Audio studio in Montreal and we immediately felt comfortable with him”.

The result is a new-country song, with strong 90’s country influences (think George Strait or Alan Jackson), sang by a guy born in France, produced and recorded in Québec, but with a sound that could compete with the highest productions of the genre.

Listen to the interview