Marian Runk’s music “honestly and humorously reflects the ambiguities of being a fallible human.” The Dallas-born, Chicago-based indie folk artist writes detail-oriented and deeply visual songs, sonically in the vein of Karen Dalton, Willie Nelson, 

Adrienne Lenker, and Gillian Welch. Her 2024 release Two Wires and a Spark, a folk album with a vintage jazz and country feel, garnered press from Rainbow Rodeo, The Chicago Reader, and The Great American Folk Show, and explored themes of loneliness, (mis)communication, grief, addiction, and vulnerability. Her new LP, Brighter Blue, is expected in Fall 2026.

Though Marian has been writing and singing since early childhood, when she penned her first tragic love poem and was the sole target of her family’s “no singing at the dinner table” rule, she first picked up a guitar in her thirties. Equal parts moss and asphalt, poetry and practicality, she studied biology and visual art, is a birdwatcher,…