O, my love is like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June. O, my Love is like the melody, That’s sweetly played in tune…

~Robert Burns

I have been on kind of a roll lately for female artists.  With that being said, I was more than happy to receive the “Bodega Rose” album from Kesang Marstrand this last week.  12 digital drops of melancholic acoustic beauty.

Bodega Rose was released late last year on North Node Records and is a contemplative journey through life’s soundtrack, as soundtracked by her – and that is a good thing, it is stunning.  While often a solo artist with a great voice that knows their way around song arrangements can get away with a pretty good song, but to put together a full album with the texture and consistency is a real feat.  While you can get visions of artists in your head while listening (like Feist, Ani DiFranco) you still get the impression that it is all her on this release.  There is a hush across the album, while mostly being acoustic guitar, there are inspired moments of harmonica, piano and what sounds like an accordion.

Backstory:

After discovering her passion for music via a piano in the common room of a schoolhouse in Colorado, Kesang Marstrand knew that it would be an inseparable part her life. As a teen, she entertained the hope of one day becoming a classical pianist and composer, but her family’s move to New York City while she was in high school prompted her to exchange the piano for the ever-more-mobile acoustic guitar.

I am glad she took the path of the folky coffee house vibe (sorry, inside joke on the journey of any folk/singer-songwriter) instead of the “classical pianist/composer” – but I don’t know if that is behind her yet.  From reading over her bio over on her website, it gives the impression of someone who thrives in the creation/creative process.  Her next project will be a collection of original lullabies!  I must say with that voice and guitar, she just might be the perfect person for something like that!  With this album, I for one think she has a future in whatever she may put her energies into.

Enjoy a couple of tracks from the album below including a her album title track and her stripped down version of the 80’s classic “Say Say Say”.

Visit Kesang on her Website (listen to the full album) and her MySpace Page.
Pick up a copy of the album “Bodega Rose” on CD BABY.

~Smansmith