Joy Shannon and the Beauty Marks is an eclectic group fronted by singer & songwriter Joy Shannon who plays harp, cello, and accordion. Their current album "As in the Wilderness" has been recorded with Martin Carrillo of Heardrum Studios (Now it's Overhead, Kari Newhouse) and Brian Frederick of Halcion Studios with Matt Pogue (the Deathblossoms) on guitar, Sean Wallace (Basket Full of Puppies) on guitar and Nathan Popejoy (46 Short, Gitane Demone) on drums. The Beauty Marks were also joined by special guest Andy Zacharias on stand up bass for the last two tracks they finished for the album."As in the Wilderness" takes you on a passionate musical journey with intricate harp and vintage-tinged guitar work, soaring layers of cellos, and intimate vocals and lyrics. "With this album I was going for a bigger rock sound incorporating a full drum set and a guitarist," Shannon says, "but then I remembered the more stripped down and minimalist acoustic sound that some of my fans like a lot, so this new album ended up half-and-half.â€Shannon claims that the content on As in the Wilderness stems from "feeling really lost" in life. "I was concentrating really hard not to give up hope especially about my music because that’s what I want to do with my life," she explains. "And, yes, I’ll keep doing it until I die."The artist found her inspiration in a simple, random incident. "I was walking down the street one day and some missionary guy who was passing out Bibles handed me one," she says. Shannon opened up the Bible to Psalm 95. "There’s a quote in it that says 'Don’t harden your heart out in the wilderness.' It was talking about temptation, the temptation to just become jaded. That was basically what the whole thing was about and that's what I had been thinking about a lot so that's where the album title came from.â€"(Joy) Shannon...is a seductive performer... I went to see Joy Shannon and the Beauty Marks one night at the Cat Club on Sunset Strip and just happened to catch a cover of “Search and Destroy†by Iggy and the Stooges... I never would have thought I could hear a cover of Mr. Iggy Pop sung with such an alluring elegance."
Robbin Clifford, "The Rockit News".
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