Marilla Homes

Marilla Homes is a force of nature, her voice powerful, subtle, enticing. Born on Yorta Yorta land in country Victoria in Australia, Marilla grew up moving around a lot, and in very multicultural environments. She has always loved singing, and originally trained as an opera singer (lyric soprano) and sang with the state company Victorian Opera, among many others. Having discovered trad Irish singing sessions in Melbourne, Marilla was welcomed by the folk community in Australia, and began to write her own songs. She released her first album Inner Whirl in 2011, featuring a range of covers with various musicians, including blues, trad ballads, country, modern folk songwriters and a capella songs.

As Marilla began to sing at festivals around Australia (Woodford FF, Port Fairy FF, Newstead Live!, Maldon FF, St Albans FF, Cobargo FF, Tamworth Country Music Festival and more), she worked both solo and with a wide variety of musicians, and with the five piece funky folk band Marilla Homes and the Housemen recorded Settler’s Wife (2014), while also releasing her solo a capella album Angel Song (2014). Angel Song features songs, poems and vocal improvisations all by Marilla, and all a capella, recorded in an 80m long church, with a pressed metal ceiling. The reverb is natural, and incredible.

Having moved to the UK ten years ago, and been living in the folk hub of Sheffield for the past 8 years, Marilla has been ensconced in the folk scene (and traditional Sheffield carols). Her hilarious a capella duo with Emily Eastwood, Steel Songbirds, recorded their debut album Sheffield Made in 2017, and performed at festivals including Warwick, Shrewsbury, Bromyard and Sheffield Folk Sessions festival.

Marilla is currently in the process of recording her next album, collaborating with a mix of great musicians. She regularly tours in her homeland of Australia, and in the 8 week 2024 tour had 34 gigs, 4 recording sessions, 1 radio interview and 5 days working at a clinic (she is a Feldenkrais Practitioner and Remedial Massage and Decongestive Lymphatic Therapist, as well). She also stopped in Singapore to teach a vocal masterclass at a university on the way back to the UK.

Live To Your Living Room regulars may well have seen Marilla as one of our MCs and stewards in recent times.

About the Gig

This event will be held live on Zoom, with a remote sound engineer for high-quality sound. Our gigs allow interaction between artists and audiences, so the artist can hear you applaud and you can even have the chance to ask them any burning questions.

Tickets are £18, with the option to pay a bit less (£12) or a bit more (£30) depending on what is affordable for you. You only need one ticket per household.

For more info and tickets, visit the link below.