Marita Esteva

MARITA ESTEVA

The music producer who ignited Johnny Cash's career famously told him to sing like he meant every word; “ to sing his sad song as if it was the last he'd ever sing" if he ever wanted to be great. Marita Esteva apparently got the message.

Marita Esteva isn't "just another sad story", as the words of her critically acclaimed "Michigan Moonlight" go, but she is stunning when she sings about one. Maybe that has to do with the fact that after the first time she picked up a guitar, when she was two-years-old, she waited 20 years to pick one up again. Apparently enough time to fill every lyric full of feeling and every vocal with meaning. This young artist has seen a lot; she has crossed continents, searching for inspiration everywhere from Glasgow to Ghana and California to Michigan, only to find herself navigating the internal landscape of love, loss and her "wild heart".

The irony isn't lost on her as she sings about looking for the end of the rainbow, feeling like "Dorothy in a land of Oz" and traveling all those miles only to find the "saddest first kiss under the moonlight". Other times, even as she tries to "love like no one else," she finds that all she can do is sew is a "button for my soul". Lucky for listeners, her life experiences make for some brilliant lyrics. And, just when you think Marita can't cover any more ground, this Renaissance woman proves she can move listeners in Spanish as well. "Quiero abrir mi alma," she sings, mastering yet another realm, and that's why it makes perfect sense when she explains, "Necesito volver," in her melody to "Volver".

Depleated but never defeated by love, it's clear that Marita picked up a guitar again for her soul. And her passionate fans are hanging on every word. Critics have compared her vocals to Tracy Champan and Patsy Cline and Marita's soulful yearning wraps around your shoulders like a second skin, in the words of her Button for My Soul" Often clever acoustics are eyebrow raising with stylistic diversity that ranges from the entrancing sounds of Mazzy Star to more harmonic Latin inflections, and Marita finds her groove in jazz based numbers. One such collaboration, with modern jazz quartet Bop Culture featuring upright bassist Paul Keller, led to "Blue Rubberband" a benefit CD that features Marita's original compositions and some of Ann Arbor's best, including Bop Culture, the George Bedard Trio and others. Final recording for the benefit CD featuring 12 of Marita's original compositions wraps up this August.

A talented guitarist and composer, Marita has the uncanny ability to balance passion and power with soaring grace. Strong and feminine, even the saddest songs leave you smiling and knowing that her voice transporting us to the critical moments of suffering and ecstasy that define our lives, will come back to some addictive harmony, soothing us into that shared sad story that resonates within all of us. Thankfully at age 27 and with 4 CD's/recordings behinf her, she is just getting started.