Merrie Sloan
Merrie Sloan
Genres: country, folk
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About Merrie Sloan
Merrie's 13 year musical career has been as rich in diversity as her music is simple and true. It all began in 1993 in a little coffeeshop in Nashville, IN with a folk trio Little Merrie Simmons; the alter ego of Peter, Paul and Mary, except less socially political and more narcissitic. Merrie apprenticed as a backup singer/songwriter with LMS' two powerful and prophetic songwriters Chris Little and Tommy Simmons. The trio wove an amazing three-part harmony of songs based on personal victory, dissapointment and coming of age. Merrie & Chris formed a band, The Kegles, with Bloomington, Indiana musicians Jon Nilsen(guitar), Karl Meyer(fiddle)and Jeff Farias(upright bass) from the 90's popular politcal folk/rock/blues band The Dorkestra. Multi-instumentalist, Ransom Haile(The Dynamics) also joined the band on his own adhoc drum kit. Merrie began to write during this time, as well as playing accordian with The Kegles, which was, at times, a seven piece band with the addition of Peter Conway on harmonica. Merrie began to flower as a writer and guitarist once she and Little paired back down to a duo, Ma and Pa Kegle, in 1997. It is during this period where the tunes on her self-titled debut album where written, in a primitive cottage, on the crest of a ridge surrounded by three huge oak trees. The songs are haunting and open; wrought with shy confidence and self-discovery. As a young woman learning the art of song and self expression, Merrie struggles with issues of excess, sexuality, friendship, longing and dreams. The album capturing this delicate time would not come to fruition for nearly a decade. In 1999, Merrie joined the rowdy ranks of Bloomington's country rock band Crooked County; initially as accordianist and back up singer, by the release of CC's sophmore record "Drunkard's Lament"(Rustic Records/2001), Merrie was one of three songwriters, with the Purnell brothers Toby and Jason. The three also mixed three part harmonies in to thier set of originals and old country and bluegrass covers. Merrie also began playing upright bass with CC, something she had learned to do in grade school. The band toured extensively around the middle and southwest in support of "Drunkard's Lament", which charted 24th on the Americana charts for radio play in the summer of 2001. CC shared the stage with the likes of Split Lip Rayfield, The Del McCoury Band, Hank Williams III, Junior Brown, Dale Watson, Rosie Flores and more. In 2002, while 4 months pregnant, Merrie began the recordings for her new record. And in a ring of fire, Merrie left CC upon the birth of she and Toby's daughter Maybelle in June of that year. Merrie's work in Crooked County laid the ground work for a well seasoned Sloan to embark on her own. Four years, and a couple of bands later(Lazy Susan with Kate Long, Grande Rouge with Kate and Evan Ferrell, John Dehner and the Enthusiasts), Merrie has completed her debut album on the heals of a bold move to music city, Nashville TN. She can be seen playing solo shows in hopes to attract more fabulous folks with which to share the stage. She thrilled to have her record done, but anxiously awaits more recording opportunites for the albums worth of tunes she has written in the interm. Read more: http://blogs.myspace.com/merriesloan#ixzz0xFD7ZHNa Featured on these recordings: Merrie Sloan - vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, upright bass, accordian- ron kadish on bass - danny deckard on the drums - kate long and chris little on backing vocals - zeb gould and evan farrell on electric guitar - megan weeder on fiddle- rick nagy on banjo - jeff gould on pedal steel - patrick mero on saw - tobias purnell on mandolin
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