MARIANNE GREEN
Caring for, and deeply respecting the treasure of Irish song, Marianne Green is especially attracted to the gems of the North of Ireland, particularly County Down and Belfast. As well as working with Irish and Celtic traditional folk music, she composes her own songs. Marianne Green’s debut album Dear Irish Boy is co-produced by Andy Irvine, an icon in Irish music. Marianne has carefully researched the songs in old books and field recordings and found remarkable material, some rarely recorded by modern time singers. However it has been very important for Marianne Green to make new and personal interpretations of the songs and thus become part of the tradition of passing on the songs.
Marianne Green grew up in Denmark strongly influenced by a mixed cultural background with an Italian mother and a father half-Danish and half-English. This opened the door for embracing the Irish culture of music, with which she fell in love at a very early age.
As a young teenager, Marianne Green rediscovered her father’s old vinyl albums and developed a strong passion for Irish folk/traditional music and dance. It marked the beginning of a musical journey that has resulted in the EP By Yonder Town and the debut album with Irish songs Dear Irish Boy in 2010.
Marianne Green has performed in many countries including Finland, Tunisia, Ireland, Scotland, Austria, Italy and Denmark. She has also appeared on numerous television and radio programs including Blas Ceoil and Gerry Anderson on BBC and Gaelic speaking programs on Irish radio, RTE.
Marianne Green has studied music and dance since childhood and plays several musical instruments. Along with her singing career, she also works as a dancer and choreographer of Irish step dance. She is the Artistic Director of her dance group Green Steps as well as a registered Irish Dance Teacher with the organisation An Coimisiún le Rince Gaelacha, and co-founder of Dark Green School of Irish Dancing.
Line up:
Marianne Green: Vocals and Whistle | Magnus Wiik: Guitar and Dobro | Martin O'Hare: Bodhran and Bones | Sonnich Lydom: Accordion and Mouth Organ
Irish Music Magazine
“In November 2007 I first met Marianne Green at the Copenhagen Irish Festival. We got to talking and hearing her Northern accent I enquired where up North she hailed from. Her vocal inclinations suggested Omagh lineage. Imagine my surprise when she said that she was Copenhagen born and bred. Marianne is an Irish dance teacher leading Denmark’s only professional dance school with fellow dancer Julie Mork and a singer of mostly Northern Irish repertoire. Listening to Marianne’s debut album Dear Irish Boy brings some interesting thoughts into focus. Her voice is light and lyrical reminding of several notables – Maighread Ni Mhaonaigh, Eithne Ni hUllachain, Cara Dillon and Juliet Turner. It’s a pronounced Northern sounding voice and a young pure one attacking her repertoire with relish. The songs are the big ones – Banks of the Bann aka Willie Archer, Doffing Mistress, Bonny Portmore, Carrickmannon Lake all classics and reliable choices. There is an assured poise balancing the youthful energy with a reasoned maturity. For accompaniment she has none other than Andy Irvine in cahoots – his mandolin, bouzouki and harmonica rippling and trilling when needed and adding melodic foil to the quieter moments. Colum Sands and Gerry O’Conner also add their deft contributions and this combination of youth and experience works in an organic fashion framing the songs in subtle yet powerful arrangements There is a refreshing lack of ego present that makes the album even more momentous. This is a meeting of like minds – from different places but whose love of Northern songs makes for an aural experience that is more than a mere recording. Recorded in the Spring Records studio in Rostrevor County Down this is history in the making- (c) John O’Regan 2010