DELICATE STEVE - The Christmas Album (2018)

Delicate Steve is the brainchild of New Jersey-based guitarist/songwriter Steve Marion. Having previously recorded friends' bands, Marion realized one day that he had enough gear lying around his home studio to record an album of his own and decided to just go for it. What he developed is a sound that feels like a hybrid of Animal Collective's dense experimentations and the African-influenced pop of bands like Dirty Projectors and Vampire Weekend, playing with layers of percussion and keyboards while tying everything together with breezy, Dobro-style slide guitar. Marion released his first album of experimental pop, Wondervisions, in 2011 on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. In 2012, he returned with his sophomore full-length Delicate Steve album, Positive Force. A year later, he partnered with guitarist Christian Peslak for Beyond the Drone under the moniker Saint Rich.

As word of Marion's work spread and gained fans among colleagues, he was invited to appear on albums by artists such as Yeasayer, Sondre Lerche, and People Get Ready. He recorded 2015's Live in Las Vegas while on tour in support of Tame Impala in late 2014. In 2016, in additional to playing guitar on new releases by Yeasayer, Lewis Del Mar, and Your Friend, he provided slide guitar for Paul Simon's critically acclaimed Stranger to Stranger LP. His third studio album, the playful This Is Steve, followed in 2017 with all earworms supplied by the guitar. It marked his debut on Epitaph's Anti- imprint. ~ Gregory Heaney & Marcy Donelson