A Great Green Light

Bruce Von Stiers

Normally, when thinking about Tucson, Arizona, a person wouldn’t think of it as a place with great Indie folk rock music. It would seem more of a Country or Frank Sinatra senior’s music styling. But those types of thoughts would be very wrong. Because Tucson has a lot of different music styles and performers just waiting to be heard.

One of the most promising indie artists to hang out around the Tucson area is a singer / songwriter named Mariah Secrest.

Earlier this year Mariah recorded a five song EP called Green Light. Fantastic vocals and great music make Green Light well worth listening to.

Mariah grew up in southern Indiana and that might have influenced her musical styling a bit. But then again, maybe not. She spent her summers for four years after high school doing work with a volunteer music organization. This work took Mariah to twenty-eight states and places like Australia and Hong Kong. So you might say that Mariah has been exposed to many different musical styles in her travels. Whether her Midwest roots or what she heard during her volunteerism influenced her music really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Mariah Secrest is an immensely talented singer / songwriter.

Mariah does all the vocals on Green Light. That is except for one of the songs where Gabriel Secrest does the background vocals. On one of the songs Matt Loftis plays the drums. But on the rest of the songs Gabriel plays all of the instruments. Mariah also wrote all five of the songs on Green Light.

The title track, Green Light, is up first. Solid guitar with a light rock touch begins the song. Mariah brings in vocals that are smooth but have a slight edge. The chorus is where Mariah shines, with raw emotion and almost echo styled rock anthem sound.

Walk Alone gives you an alt rock feel at its intro. Then things change up as soon as Mariah begins singing. You get a fine cross between folk and light pop / rock that is really cool. There is also a bit of U2 styled music at the end of the song that is slick. This is the song that Matt Loftis does the drums on.

Monsoon is a beautiful song that is sad yet mellow and peaceful. Gabriel Secrest does some nice backing vocals. And it finishes with Mariah doing the vocals a cappella, making the ending very endearing.

Almost There has some really good alt rock folk music. Mariah’s vocals are smooth and strong, the tone accusing at times. But the song is a kind of in-your-face piece anyway.

Mariah ends the EP with a really great song called Pulse. There is good, light pop/ rock music backing terrific vocals. At places during the song Mariah’s voice goes up a few octaves for an almost echoing, angelic vocalization.

Mariah Secrest has immense talent. The songs that she writes are full of emotion that shines through as you listen to her sing. Mariah’s voice is smooth and endearing, making you want to hear more.

Mariah has a MySpace Music site where you can hear songs from Green Light. You can also learn a bit more about her and where you can catch her playing a gig. The site is http://www.myspace.com/mariahsecrestmusic

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