For Mariee Sioux, it feels strange to think of herself as a songwriter – which is kind of like LeBron James finding it funny to consider himself a basketball player.
Though Sioux is a freak-folk legend in the making – thanks to beautiful Native American flute, crisp guitar and transcendental lyrics on songs like “Buried in Teeth” – she never thought of it as the beginning of a career. Strumming was simply a way to entertain herself. Then she began scoring favorable reviews and comparisons to everyone from Joni Mitchell to Joanna Newsom after releasing Faces in the Rocks in 2007.
Even by the time Sioux – who performs Saturday at cozy Pierce Ranch Tasting Room off Cannery Row – made her 2012 sophomore effort, Gift for the End, she continued to think it wouldn’t reach an audience much beyond herself. Only the music’s too good not to: The tapestry of fingerpicking, organ and intermittent percussion circle Sioux’s childlike vocals on “Ghosts In My Heart” like a sweatlodge ceremony taking place on Mars. Following Gift for the End, Sioux teamed up with beloved folk singer-songwriter Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy, on a 7-inch Bonnie & Mariee, which features an all-star lineup of Cali-folk musicians including bassist Paz (The Entrance Band), keyboardist Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) and guitarist Jonathan Wilson. The four tracks include an original from each musician and two covers. On the haunting and beguiling “Loveskulls,” Sioux and Oldham’s harmonies reach strangely intoxicating plateaus that make it impossible to stop listening.
“I still wanted to have the casual flow that I sometimes write with but be a little more conscious about thinking about what I’m doing, too,” Sioux says.
As she settles into touring and makes more and more collaborative connections with established stars, she’s learning the legal ropes too: She had to raise $5,000 to purchase the rights from the record label who initially put out Faces in the Rocks, which she’s readying to re-release.
“It was such a long ordeal,” Sioux says. “I was really young and didn’t know anything about [the music industry].”
Another struggle is harder to believe.
“I’ve had to kind of grapple with that fact that music is now a part of my life,” she says. As bizarre as that sounds after hearing her music, the bigger challenge would be imagining good freak-folk without her.
MARIEE SIOUX performs at 9pm Saturday, Sept. 7, at Pierce Ranch Tasting Room, 499 Wave St., Monterey. $8. 372-8900.
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