Join ‘The Neasden Queen of Soul’ Mari Wilson for an evening of hits old and new as she fills The Albany Arts Theatre with her enchanting voice and beautiful arrangements.
Performing tracks from her latest album ‘Cover Stories’, including her renditions of ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ and ‘Be My Baby’, Mari Wilson will take the audience on a musical journey with her surprising and diverse mix of both classics and contemporary songs.
Mari Wilson first broke through thirty years ago with the 1982 hit ‘Just What I Always Wanted’. Now entering her fourth decade as a recording artist Mari is reconciled with her past and excited about the future.
For the new album, Mari teamed up with string-arranger, orchestrator, composer and pianist Simon Hale, to record some of her favourite songs 'I’ve never made an album of covers before and thought it was about time, especially as I perform some of these songs in my show and have often been asked if they are available on CD.'
. From the likes of the Bee Gees and The Pretenders to Gillian Welch - they have all be given the Mari Wilson treatment - and finally, having played Dusty Springfield in Dusty The Musical, Mari has at last recorded a Dusty song.
Recorded in Hale’s Oxfordshire studio and mixed by Haydn Bendall, Mari relished taking a production role in the record: 'I co-produced this album with Simon, together with some wonderful musicians I’ve worked with over the years. We’ve tried to give the album a cinematic and melancholy atmosphere.'
The end result is a more chilled affair and in many ways more of a concept album than Mari’s previous releases. Her lightness of touch, notably on ‘They Don’t Know’ originally by her friend Kirsty McColl, is to be applauded and when Big Audio Dynamite’s Mick Jones and Don Letts heard that Mari was recording a version of ‘Everybody Needs A Holiday’ they said "Really glad it's gonna get a second time out with a new feel by a great singer...."
Mari has always been known for her live shows - hits old and new, unusual and unexpected covers and of course, a myriad of glamorous costume changes.
Combined with Mari’s storytelling and wit she still stands as one of the best live performers in the country.