“There are so many layers to why I journeyed across the United States in 2022,” says Marie, who released her second album Signs in June and calls her music “classic country for the modern world.” “Unknowingly, I had reached a pivotal crossroad, fueled by grief. I just wanted to run away, fall apart and either lose myself or find myself. I needed to face my demons, find answers and heal myself. Ultimately, I wanted to remember the beauty of life and simply be free.”

A year before she hit the road, the pressure “was intensifying” prior to the release of her debut album Ramble On. She struggled with intense emotions and fears that she didn’t know how to address. She felt stuck and overwhelmed working a regular job while trying to launch a music career.

“I was reading Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey when he described how traveling would help him find his way again when he felt stuck,” Marie recalls. “Maybe if I found the courage to travel uncharted territory alone the fears haunting me would finally disappear. I took off on a month-long excursion, visiting family, friends and some national parks, reveling in the adventure and intrinsic beauty of Mother Earth.”

Marie returned home and felt “even more stuck” than when she first left. She had to force herself to get out of bed.

“I finished 2021 plagued by extreme anxiety, fears that woke me during the night and times when I felt I was being burned alive from the inside out,” she says. “Everything came crashing down in fall 2021 when all in my family contracted COVID. I realized I could not keep up and pulled the plug on music. It wasn’t long before several key relationships ended. The final blow was the unexpected passing of my Dad. I had the most money I’d ever saved and nothing left to lose. I packed up my Toyota Yaris and headed west.”

Did running away provide answers?

“The greatest discovery was that I did not love myself, and I was searching to be loved by a world that was as lost as I was,” Marie says. “The way back to salvation requires a journey from head to heart. Our hearts hold the key to everything, if we have the courage and vulnerability to open it. Sometimes, we grip the wheel, but when we let go, we receive what is meant for us.”

On her website, Marie describes the beauties she saw during her travels.

“I took in breathtaking landscapes, mountains, valleys and streams, sunlight and snow, open air, the scent of nature and ponderosa pines,” she says. “Fiery sunsets and starry nights stilled my mind and calmed my heart. Nature fed my spirituality, eased my pain and encouraged me to face my fears and pay attention to the many signs and scenarios serving to teach, test, validate and redirect my life.”

Before her road trip, which took her to 24 states, Marie wrote three songs that appear on her new Signs album: “Heart,” “Kancamagus Highway” and “Only You Can.” The album, she says, veered her away from classic country and into folk rock.

Heart (Official Video)

Everybody’s guilty
Of judging books by their covers
Its easy to fear
What you don’t know about others

I know we’ve all cried, cheated and lied
Before, but I’m telling you

If you live long enough
You’ve felt the ache when it breaks
But how it sings when love begins to start
Every human has a heart

Don’t you want to find out
What the birds chirp about
Can you hear the song
That plays beneath the doubt

I know it can be lonely
On the outside looking in

Though she lived in a nearby state, Marie didn’t discover New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway until her early 30s.

“The three rivers running alongside its lengthy and rocky shore mesmerized, elated and inspired me,” she explains. “I was listening to Ram Dass’ lectures while driving the highway, and his catch phrase ‘be here now’ struck a chord. Frequently caught up in my head, I didn’t know how to live in the moment. I finally grasped the meaning of his message through this experience. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Kancamagus is a Native American word meaning ‘the fearless one’ — a meaning that somehow foreshadowed what was to come and what I was to become.”

The song “Keleena” was written in northern California and has deep personal meanings.

“It was written at the peak of my 2022 odyssey during a spiritual retreat at Mount Shasta, considered the root chakra of the planet,” Marie says. “Keleena was the retreat facilitator and guided us through a meditation to open our hearts. When I focused my attention there, all I felt was overwhelming pain. Individual healing sessions followed by Keleena and another facilitator named Janet. My encounter provoked deeply rooted emotions, provoking anguished screams and an ocean of tears. At the retreat’s end, I gratefully hugged both Keleena and Janet, and, for the first time, felt what I imagined was unconditional love. Ever since that experience, I feel this place inside my heart, and it feels like I am home.”

During her many days behind the wheel, she listened to lots of music, including classic country and songs of “icons and influencers” John Denver, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.

“Both versions of ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” sung by Eva Cassidy and Linda Ronstadt, made their mark as I navigated the feelings and emotions of a breakup that happened just before starting my journey,” Marie says. “The song put just the right amount of pressure and perspective on the melancholy and loneliness I was experiencing. I also listened to John Mayer a lot, although I’m not sure why. He became a familiar road trip friend that I turned to when I got tired of either my inner dialogue rants or the occasional deafening silence.”

But what is the best album she ever listened to? I ask Marie.

“Before being influenced by Patsy Cline, there was rock ‘n’ roll and Bob Seger,” she responds. “I know every song on his Greatest Hits album. He was my Mom’s favorite singer, and that album was often playing in the background. So, based on nostalgia, I would say it was the best, because it was the soundtrack to my childhood.”

While living in Nashville, Marie obtained her first record player and regularly went thrifting for records. At a Goodwill store, she found John Denver’s Greatest Hits album.

“Sitting in a bargain bin with other vinyl LPs, I grabbed it for 99 cents!” she says excitedly. “Of all the albums in my collection, this is the one I always gravitate toward. Why? Because I like the way it makes me feel. I relate to songs about being high on nature, warm sunshine, country living and the bliss of simplicity in a complicated world.”

Marie’s first concert as a spectator was a Willie Nelson show at the Providence Performing Art Center.

“Decked out in our best western attire, a group of us piled into one car and headed to the show,” she recalls. “Although we were seated somewhere in a balcony, Willie made us feel like he was right beside us. I was blessed and forever grateful to have experienced Willie in his heyday. Again, it was a time when life seemed so easy, I was just a kid and attending with old friends and family made this my favorite concert. A special memory frozen in time because not all these people are still with us, but I know I will see them again on the other side.”