Pitchfork “Like a soft slap to the face.” Heartache with Hard Work “The best record of the year that no one has heard of.” -My Magic City, Best of 2008 First Coast News "Littered with humor and yearning for love, My Magic City is an adorable record who’s charms are simple and plenty.” Quick Crit Music “Luminous. Lovely. Lush.” The Boston Globe “This is her magic moment.” Bio: Caithlin De Marrais is a torch singer for those too young to know what exactly it means. With a gift for simplicity, she channels Emily Dickinson, telling truth at a slant. It’s no surprise–Cait used to be lead canary with the rock band Rainer Maria. The great ornament of her album My Magic City is her voice–echoing in a church, filling a cottage, and wafting through her apartment. Recorded in very few takes, and mixed by Dave Schiffman (Johnny Cash, Mars Volta), it mends and rends the heart. "Early every morning for months, rain or shine, I walked from the apartment in Brooklyn where I live with my husband to an overlook near the Bridge. I watched for stretches of empty sidewalk and hummed to myself. When an idea came to me, I whispered it into my cell phone: a few notes of melody, a snippet of lyric. I developed the songs in secret. When no one was around, I talked to them like houseplants. For a long time I didn’t play them for anyone, I just patiently watched them grow. When they threatened to bloom, I called my friends and favorite musicians from the neighborhood. In the spirit of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks or Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, the sessions were completely improvised. No one heard the songs until we hit “record.” We rarely played anything the same way twice. Instruments were swapped between musicians–sometimes abandoned. Tempos were agitated or calmed. The song, “The Cottage,” was composed as it was being played, and recorded on the spot. We made the record wherever we happened to be, making music in a fire-ravaged church in Brooklyn, a rustic cottage in upstate New York, and several Brooklyn apartments including my own. There was no sound isolation, not much in the way of overdubs. We cued one another with eye contact, everyone playing together. I sang the songs live in the room as the musicians were playing them. You can hear the warmth and affection of the sessions in the songs themselves. Without nostalgia or guile, we played in the magic city with an innocent wonder. We felt both challenged and at home. I think I’ll stay awhile." —Caithlin De Marrais Brooklyn, Sept. 2008