French-born, Tucson-based chanteuse Marianne Dissard was born within sight of the Pyrénées mountains in the South of France but has been living in the American West since the age of 16. Singer, writer of lyrics and poetry, filmmaker and performance artist, Marianne Dissard tours extensively the world over, either solo or backed by her American bandmates. Over the course of four acclaimed albums, unique hybrids of Americana and Chanson, she has collaborated with Tucson’s sweethearts Calexico, Howe Gelb, Naïm Amor, Sergio Mendoza, Jim Waters and Brian Lopez as well as with her extended family outside of Arizona, including French chanteuse Françoiz Breut, Berlin choreographer Ami Garmon, Italian composer Christian Ravaglioli and Rhymesayers producer BK-One.
Marianne Dissard’s second ‘official’ album, “L’Abandon” (2011) was released in early 2011 to critical acclaim, making several Top 2011 lists (Le Parisien, Bruxelles Mediatheque, Texas Public Radio and New York Music Daily). “One of the best dark rock records in recent years.” (Lucid Culture), “Quelle richesse, quelle diversité, quelle complexité !” (Le Parisien). Produced by Marianne with Jim Waters (Jon Spencer, Little Rabbits) and BK-One (Rhymesayers, Brother Ali) ‘L’Abandon’ was recorded with Christian Ravaglioli from Italy, Luke Doucet from Canada, Arthur Vint, Connor Gallaher, Sergio Mendoza, Brian Lopez and Thøger Lund. The companion film to the album, ‘Lonesome Cowgirls’, is a bawdy burlesque remake, directed and acted by Marianne, of the Andy Warhol’s 1968 Tucson western, ‘Lonesome Cowboys’. Marianne is spending most of 2011 on tour in China, New Zealand and Australia, Europe and North America, including a Pyrénées walking tour with her donkey.
In 2010, Marianne released her ‘intermediary’ album, “Paris One Takes” (2010) (“8/10″ Blurt, “a fantastic album. 4/5 Stars” Venus Magazine, “Definitely one of our favorite albums of 2010″ Lucid Culture) as a free download in gratitude to her fans. Marianne attended SXSW 2010, blogging about the festival for The Huffington Post and toured the US with Françoiz Breut, including a MOMA performance in NYC.
Between Chanson and Americana, Marianne Dissard’s enchanting debut album, “L’Entredeux” (2008), was produced and composed by Calexico’s Joey Burns, with stellar contributions by friends from both continents, including Calexico’s John Convertino on drums, Naïm Amor, Rob Burger, Sammy Decoster and Mickey Raphael. “L’Entredeux” was released worldwide in the Fall 2008, with 15 months of touring from Europe to New Zealand and North America. The album won a prestigious Coup De Coeur from France’s Académie Charles Cros in 2009 and was voted in the Top 10 French albums of the decade by Francophile bloggers. “A moody, captivating album, with roots in Nick Drake’s introspection, Francoise Hardy’s romanticism and Nina Simone’s drama.” writes Blurt Magazine. A music video for “Les Draps Sourds” guest-features France’s pop stars Katerine and Dominique A.
The very, very first album is “Dedicated To Your Walls. May They Keep Blooming” (2006), recorded with Joey Burns on guitar and Marianne singing.
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Calexico fans will recognize Marianne as Madame to Joey Burns’ lovestruck gold digger on Calexico’s hit single, “Ballad of Cable Hogue” from their 2000 album “Hot Rail”. She also duetted with then-husband Naïm Amor on the 2001 album “Tête A Tête/ABBC” by Amor/Belhom/Burns/Convertino. A prolific lyricist in both English and French, her words are sung primarily by herself but also by Françoiz Breut, Howe Gelb and Naïm Amor, with whom she also co-wrote the Amor Belhom Duo and Amor albums.
As a filmmaker, she has directed films for French TV, collaborating with director Robert Kramer and poster artist Robbie Conal, and directed the Giant Sand/Howe Gelb documentary “Drunken Bees”.
As a multimedia performance artist with choreographer Ami Garmon, she was exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, France (Hiver de L’Amour), then got subsequently invited to be artist-in-residency and to perform at the Musée D’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France by Philippe Vergne (Walker Art Center), in Lisboa, Portugual and at the Paris Foundation Cartier. After this first exposure to performance art, Marianne put on a few haunted performances pieces in Tucson, Arizona, the downtown that had become her home by 1994. In 2009, Marianne and Ami reunited to share the stage in Berlin, Dortmund and the Arte Lounge TV show.
During the 2004 US presidential election, Marianne launched the Tucson Suffragettes, a gang of sexy downtown political vixens who went after “virgin voters”, enlisting the help of Linda Rondstadt, Chuck Bowden, Shepard Fairey, Robbie Conal and the Tucson arts and music community. Now a full-time singer, Marianne, no longer hiding behind a camera or her words, wishes she could have sang with Jean Sablon but hopes she can still duet with Scott Walker one of these days.
In no particular order on the music side…. Marianne is featured, alongside Jane Birkin and Françoiz Breut on the 2007 “Filles Fragiles” CD compiled for Dutch label Essential Dance Music by Guuzbourg and the 2009 Universal Australia compilation “Ballade en France”. Marianne contributes, alongside Devendra Barnard and Bill Callahan, to the CD tribute to American folksinger Kath Bloom by Australian label Chapter Music (Feb09) and to compilations that include the “Christmas In Tucson” CD produced by Olivier Mosset with tracks by Bob Log III and Al Foul. For that release, Marianne collaborated with Jonathan Richman’s drummer Tommy Larkins to cover the 1980 British hit, “Stop The Cavalry”. She also wrote an original Christmas song with Amparo Sanchez of Amparanoia, included in Germany specialty label Trikont’s 2008 Christmas compilation. Le Pop Musik has included Marianne in their 2008 “Les Filles Le Pop” compilation and Virgin Australia will release a French-themed compilation with track “Les Draps Sourds”. Finally, UK label Regular Beat Recordings released a split 7 inch vinyl with Alaska in Winter, featuring Beirut, on the flipside while Italian band Desing produced another split single, with artwork by Howe Gelb’s daughter, Patsy. Again, from Italy, band Sea of Cortez and pianist Christian Ravaglioli collaborated with Marianne on a studio track in the spring 2009 in Tucson, leading to Marianne and Christian co-writing her second album, “L’Abandon”, in 2010. A first 7 inch vinyl (4 tracks with bonus 11 tracks digital download) was self-released in the spring 2006, selling out shortly afterwards. Marianne has performed extensively with Tucson guitarist Matt Mitchell, recording tracks for compilations and their own amusement. The 11 tracks demos to “L’Entredeux”, with Joey Burns on guitar, are available as album “Dedicated To Your Walls. May They Keep Blooming”, both as AIFF CDr and on I-Tunes. France’s prestigious Académie Charles Cros awarded “L’Entredeux” their Coup De Coeur 2009. Marianne has been backed on tour by some of Tucson’s finest: Sergio Mendoza, Brian Lopez, Clay Koweek, Arthur Vint, Andrew Collberg, Geoff Hidalgo, Naïm Amor, Marco Rosano, Thøger Lund, Connor Gallaher, Vicki Brown… as well as by Rob Hecht, Scott Tixier and Olivier Samouillan from outside of Tucson.
