Marie Schumacher is a songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, pianist and vocal arranger based in Portland, Oregon, who has released four CDs of original acoustic rock music. Her songs have been featured on KFOG and KUSF in San Francisco. Her influences include Everything but the Girl, the Pretenders, Aimee Mann and the Cowboy Junkies.

Island Set Aflame, Marie’s most recent recording, was released in the fall of 2011. The songs for this album took root in 2008 when Marie resumed her long-time collaboration with multi-instrumentalist, Berkeley-based Steve Gibson. During this time, a fire broke out on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay and could be seen in the night sky during one of their rehearsals. For Marie, the image illustrated the light and heat that we all carry in us in our isolation, uniqueness, and creativity. In the ensuing years, Marie wrote a series of musical poems around these themes, with Steve providing layers of melodic lines, gentle grooves, and lush textures to express them most powerfully. Island Set Aflame is the result of this work, beautifully supported by Jon Arkin on drums and percussion and by Ryan Massey of Sharkbite Studios, who recorded and mixed the songs and added backing vocals. The collection ends with an a cappella bonus track, Marie’s arrangement of Rickie Lee Jones’ song “The Horses,” recorded by a cappella veteran David Anderson, with Marie’s son Gavin chipping in some vocal percussion.

Marie has played on both coasts with several bands, including Agent 99 (60s retro-pop), the John Mariz Trio (jazz), the Big Picture (R & B), and Andrea Hurley (Americana). She was also the musical director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Opportunes, an a cappella voice band.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Marie has also lived in Washington, D.C.; Mexico City; and the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, Marie plays out in Portland several times a year. She also returns to the Bay Area regularly to play shows and to reconnect with her musical community there.

Marie is the director of PDX Vox, a community a cappella singing program for adults and teens.

For more details about Marie’s recordings, you can visit CD Baby.