Marthia Sides has one of the most impressive voices, looks, and musical pedigrees on Music Row. What separates Marthia from her Row competition is not just her music and her style- which are impressive indeed- but it's her show-biz background. She's one of the few Country singers who's lived the life of an Off- Broadway performer- in New York, not in downtown Nashville- and endured the Broadway auditions with thousands of other top talents. Marthia has done tons of TV and film work, and is a top-notch stylist and had many celebrity clients. She lived and worked in New York for 6 years before coming to Nashville, but her heart and soul has always been in the South. Marthia is truly a City, Country, City type of girl.
Bio
This Virginia-Born performer had a successful career off Broadway and in TV and film before launching her music career after a chance encounter with a songwriter while shooting the CMT reality show "Popularity Contest"
"Some Assembly Required" by Marthia Sides is more than simply a witty and rollicking new single about the frustrations of finding a perfect man. Its title is also a spot on reflection of the many different ways to approach the story of the multi-talented, classically trained singer/songwriter's rise as an indie artist since the release of her 2006 debut Born Again In The Country.
As Grassroots Promotion in Nashville promotes the track onto pop and country airwaves nationwide, we can start with the whimsical, not so "Crazy" notion that she was born to be a country crossover star. Among Sides' musical heroes is Patsy Cline, another Virginian whose music spanned the country and pop idioms effortlessly. It would be easy to jump from there to the singer's current home of Nashville, where she recorded her first album with producer Larry Rogers, whose legendary credits include Ricky Nelson and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Her first single "Picture Perfect Girl " got radio play at small and large market stations--including KGYO, the biggest station in Denver--and she toured the Midwest extensively. A Jefferson Pilot station jumped all over Sides' music and the station's support helped her get into the prestigious Taste of Colorado festival. In Arizona, the song won a station make it or break it contest before the Eager County Festival.
These successes led to her working with multi-platinum producer Kevin Beamish, who helmed REO Speedwagon's classic Hi Infidelity album and who has scored over 45 #1 and Top 5 singles by top country artists like Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn, Clint Black and Martina McBride. Beamish helmed Sides' prophetically titled follow-up collection I Got Faith in addition to "Some Assembly Required."
It might also be appropriate to mention the way serendipity works in Sides' burgeoning career, particularly in the way she discovered the song that became her new single. "I write a lot of my own material," she says, "but if I hear an outside song that I identify with or think I could have written myself, I'm going to take notice. I found it on the desk of Jim Vest, a veteran Nashville music guy who produced the 'American Beauty' track I recorded to promote the U.S. Beauties Pageant event. The title 'Some Assembly Required' intrigued me and the lyrics were unexpected and knocked me out. He told me that it was going to be recorded by a 15 year old singer, and I said it's too edgy for a kid, that I would love to bring my own life experience to it. Ultimately, it was the perfect fit."
But perhaps the most intriguing part of Sides' story is how a multi-talented performer who lived in New York for seven years and found success in every area of the entertainment world ultimately became a formidable country/pop singer/songwriter. One of her notable roles in her Off Broadway career was in "Alice in Wonderland," and her film and TV roles included appearances on HBO, Comedy Central, TLC, and HGTV. This leap from the Big Apple requires a bit of off road traveling to the small town of Vega, Texas, population 900, the site of Country Music Television's reality performance competition show "Popularity Contest ." Her agent suggested she audition for any show where she could show off her musical talent. When she got picked, her unique performance background earned her the nickname "the NYC Opera Singer"--even though she hadn't sung opera in years.
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