Miko Marks releases 'Jubilee,' a rootsy collaboration with the Fisk Jubilee Singers
Veteran country and Americana artist Miko Marks — who currently has career artifacts on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's "American Currents" exhibition — has released "Jubilee," a revived version of some of her most ambitious material since her 2021 return from a musical hiatus, featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Via a press statement, the Flint, Michigan native and Grambling State University graduate highlights that the track reflects her belief that "as [she moves] through the ever-changing world that we live in, all will be well and I will make it to the place of peace, strength, and happiness."
The performer's voice and lived-in experience evolve the piano-driven ballad from merely being a track in service to finding hope at the end of a journey. Instead, it offers notes of the artist finishing a redemptive arc of her life and preparing for the potential of tremendous success.
Fourteen months have elapsed since a cycle in her career that saw her appear onstage at the Grand Ole Opry alongside fellow African-American veteran female country performer Rissi Palmer. She also received two standing ovations during her December 2022 Opry debut.
She returns to the Opry on Oct. 13 to perform "Jubilee" — alongside her collaborators. Marks will appear on the lineup with Colbie Caillat, Rachael Lampa, The Isaacs, Jim Peterik, Riders In The Sky, and Connie Smith.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers are a 150-plus-year-old and Grammy-winning gospel choir from Nashville's historically Black college, Fisk University, whose rise to acclaim birthed the city being nicknamed "Music City."
In recent years, the unit has made Country Music Award-nominated appearances with Jelly Roll ("I Need A Favor") and appeared onstage at the Ryman Auditorium with Allison Russell — among many notable performances.
About the latter, New Orleans native Joy Clark, an artist in her regard and a guitarist in Russell's touring band, noted that working with the singers felt like "a wall of protective Black sound, an army, a [protective] fortress of ancestors."
Marks' fierce blend of rootsy, soulful sounds has yielded what, by 2024, will be two LPs and an EP of material that frequently appears on Americana's radio charts. This has keyed many appearances in Nashville and elsewhere via Americana Fest, CMA Fest, CMT's Next Women of Country program, and tour dates with Little Feat and Palmer.
The performer's statements about her creative headspace moving forward in 2023 and beyond from a May 2023 Tennessean feature still ring true.
"This new chapter in the book of my life is one defined by comfort in my authentic self. I'm making the best music of my life because people get to know and see my spirituality organically."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Miko Marks enlists Fisk Jubilee Singers for new single 'Jubilee'
