Our Country

When Miko Marks released her sophomore album It Feels Good in 2007, the country singer-songwriter likely didn’t realize that it would be nearly 14 years before she’d share its follow-up. A wildly talented vocalist and songwriter, the Flint, Michigan-born Marks was overlooked by the primarily white country music establishment and left Nashville for Oakland, carving out a niche for herself in a more welcoming local music scene. “I didn't plan on doing another album,” Marks tells Apple Music. “I just was done. I just didn't see another one in my future, so I'm really happy that I did it, and I think I'm going to do more.” Our Country is Marks’ triumphant return to recorded music, a project she embarked upon after reconnecting with former bandmates and collaborators. Tracks like “Goodnight America” and “We Are Here” reckon with the life-or-death consequences of systemic racism for Black people, with the powerful track “Mercy” offering a healing prayer to Black families shattered by police brutality. Marks includes her own versions of the hymn “Not Be Moved” and the oft-covered Stephen Foster song “Hard Times,” the latter of which Marks reclaimed in light of Foster’s history of racism. Below, Marks walks Apple Music through each of Our Country’s tracks.
Ancestors “When we wrote ‘Ancestors,’ I wrote the first line, ‘Guide my feet as I walk this road.’ I was just like, ‘I'm coming back into country music and, whoo, I don't know what this is going to look like for me. I'm going to call on all of my ancestors, all of those that have gone before me, for strength, for encouragement.’ I do believe that there are guiding forces out there leading me in the way that I should go, and also giving us strength to get through these times that we're in.”
Hard Times “‘Hard Times’ was a song that I had heard, but I didn't know the origins of the song. I did some research about Stephen Foster and his racist lyrics and other songs and performing minstrel shows, and then I ran across Mavis Staples doing ‘Hard Times’—that just made me really want to repurpose this song to give it a new face.”
Pour Another Glass “‘Pour Another Glass’ started as a joke. I think we were three months into the pandemic. We felt like it was time to lighten the load a little bit as far as the music. We were like, ‘Why did Jesus' first miracle have to have wine in it?’ But hey, somebody had to keep the party going.”
Goodnight America “When I heard that song, it was like a yoke had broken in me about what I wanted to do as an artist. ‘Goodnight America’ is basically a lullaby to the status quo of the way things are done in our country. It also wants to just put the focus on our foundation: Look at what we've built, look how it was built, and let's have a conversation around that and put all these things to rest.”
Hold It Together “That one came together with Justin [Phipps] and Steve [Wyreman], and my friend Victor Campos, who had the idea. How we, as a country, need to unify and lift each other up so we can make it through the times that are bleak and daunting, pulling on each other's strengths to become stronger as a whole.”
Mercy “It's a prayer for all the young people that have lost their lives through police brutality. It's about all the single moms out there having to bury their children. It's just a prayer for all the youth, all of our babies who are coming up in this world that we created for them, and really hoping that they can find a way forward in this. It's a hard road to just be born Black. This song was praying for some kind of mercy on the souls and the mothers, the fathers, the families, and on the children, too. I still cry when I sing that song.”
Travel Light “This one I related to when I lost my mom. I lost her so abruptly and so quickly. My mom died at a very young age, and I had so many bottled-up feelings around that. So I took ‘Travel Light’ as ‘don't hold on to all the loss and the heartache of what you've lost, but hold on to the goodness.’ Travel light within myself, because I was carrying a heavy load with that loss.”
We Are Here “When I left Flint, it was about 1990, and so things weren't like they are now. There was more middle class and people still had jobs in the automotive industry. Now the city has just been torn down to barely existent. The water is still poisoned. My entire family is still there and people are still struggling, but forgotten about. I started this song in 2018 and then I shelved it because I felt like, ‘You haven't been home in a while, so you can't really speak to this, things going on in Flint.’ But no, I can, because it's still going on. It's so horrible to see my family still suffer, still having to buy bottled water to drink or to wash their clothes. That's in 2021. I felt the need to shine a light on my city as well as all other cities that are suffering the same way. It's across America. It's not just Flint.”
Water to Wine “It's a song that has all the other songs involved; I thought it was a pretty clever way to bring the whole album together. It's kind of bluesy, which is something that I don't necessarily sing all the time, and I liked how it was a throwback to the '40s in delivery, a Billie Holiday juke-joint kind of tune. It has every song on the album in it.”
Not Be Moved “My take on ‘Not Be Moved’ is, it's been 13 years since I put out an album, and I feel stronger than I ever have in my genre and what I'm doing and the music that I'm putting out. I feel really like I'm standing in my power with this album. Speaking out on things that are not okay, using my voice and my platform to raise awareness to injustice and systemic racism and social inequality, economic inequality. All those things I'm standing firm on that platform with, we shall not be moved.”