MARILYN JORDAN IS … a performing singer-songwriter who draws from her experience as a woman, an Oregonian, and a single parent, influenced throughout her life by American roots music and jamband culture.
She wrote her 2023 master's thesis on Nanci Griffith – a contemporary of John Prine and Lucinda Williams – and continues to develop projects related to her master's study of Americana music, Oregon history, and how music and narratives impact people, empathy, and compassion.
After supporting her family by providing project management, leadership, and publishing skills tied to writing, design, and tech, she obtained funding for graduate school by teaching public speaking skills to delightful 18-year-olds,
During 2023 and 2024 she co-curated a substantial exhibit on 20th century music, as the apprentice to music exhibit pioneer Bob Santelli (currently director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives, formerly director of the Grammy Museum).
She is currently building on her Nanci Griffith work through publishing and presenting (via Folk Alliance and AmericanaFest), continuing to study how stories and music work, and expanding her skills at crafting and presenting her own writing and music, hoping to create space for arts to open hearts to compassion – most recently (this week!) by singing to an art, child, and farmer-filled market (and a few goats) amidst 300-year-old oak trees.
Available for performing, speaking, design/editing, and leading workshops. Please contact me if you're interested in collaborating.
influenced by nature and the nineteen forties. no one knows why. new album brewing… WASHED BY SUNLIGHT
“The lyrics identify a challenging element of human experience — how to really understand the other, and how to understand our own kids. Food for thought.“
MELISSA CLARKE
Americana Highways
VICKI GREEN
studio producer, film producer, music performance coach, musician
and then getting to hear your beautiful songs. What a treat."
Marilyn grew up in the forests and savannas of Oregon, where she walked in the rain, climbed oak trees, and read books from the Carnegie library -- when she wasn't making up songs on her parents' hundred-year-old piano.
As an adult, she saw first-hand some of the tragedies that life can deliver, which expanded her understanding of the kinds of challenges, pain, and joy that no one escapes completely. She found that others craved what she'd learned -- gratitude for patience, compassion, healthcare -- things that were also showing up in her songs.
Marilyn Jordan is a jamband-inspired singer-songwriter who creates songs that heal, from her native rural Oregon. Drawing on themes of home, hiding out, and running like hell, Marilyn tells stories of badass adventures through this bittersweet life, with intriguing paths and soul-saving sense of humor.
Badass adventures through this bittersweet life
Heartbreaking comfort with a sense of humor
Bittersweet & Badass
Jamband-Inspired Singer-Songwriter
Like Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt, singer-songwriter Marilyn Jordan gets to the heart of the matter, with sweet guitar and her gorgeous and gritty voice.
Like Joni Mitchell, Nanci Griffith, and Bonnie Raitt, Marilyn tells stories of badass adventures through this bittersweet life, with beautiful voice, intriguing stories, and soul-saving sense of humor.