Today's Pick

Born to a Danish mother and Tibetan father, Kesang Marstrand is not your ordinary mixed-origin singer-songwriter. She just out with a music video for her debut album's title track, "Bodega Rose." Grew up in Colorado and she later moved to New York, her interest in music began at an early age, as she discovered her passion for music via a piano in the common room of a schoolhouse in Colorado. Marstrand's music is soulful acoustic that's at once gripping and memorable. Her debut album is a contemplative, acoustic work. Smallish album of great folk songs with catchy melodies.
In New York City, which is where Marstrand live mostly, "Bodega" is just a word for a convenience store. The title song is about the roses you can buy outside most bodegas. The sentiment of the song has to do with the choices we make, and the inevitable sacrifice of choosing something like living in the city as opposed to living in a more natural environment. It's about reconciling a choice and recognizing that there's a sacrifice in everything, but that there's also a beauty in that. I think the entire album is about reconciliation, in different ways.
Marstrand has a relaxed and delicious voice. She tells us about writing "Bodega Rose:" "It started with the image of this bodega on a street corner near where I was living in New York. They have flowers outside, like a lot of bodegas do, and I remember having this image in my mind of the roses on a rainy evening. Then the idea of wilderness came up, the idea of wildflowers, and I found myself thinking about how many people in the city, including myself, often feel this intense longing for nature. The song came from that place, and writing it came very naturally... it just kind of came to me, which doesn't happen that often."
The video was shot in Nashville in August after Marstrand moved from NYC, and directed by filmmaker Jeff Wyatt Wilson, who had to say about working with Marstrand: "When I first heard Kesang's 'Bodega Rose' I simply fell in love with her lyrics as well as her voice. I immediately played the song over and over again and was so excited that this was the artist and song we were going to shoot." He added "Kesang and I worked wonderfully together. She has a beautiful soul and is one of the most kind and talented musicians I've ever worked with. Projects like this are humbling and remind me of just how fortunate I am to get the pleasure to have these brief intimate creative moments where friendships are born that you know will last forever."