Marina Sharpshire @ Kat Vargas Memorial - MS Benefit 07/11/21

I was lucky enough to catch back to back performers at the Kat Vargas MS Benefit. Kat Chaveau's generous donation of the Love Kats II venue, and brilliant decorations made this sweet time of remembrance a warm and wonderful gathering of friends new and old. The second act I covered was the incredible Marina Sharpshire. I've been a fan of Marina's for a while now. In fact, I blogged her earlier this year. There are a lot of great singers in SL. I’m not sure anyone is working as hard to improve their sound as Marina is. I can hear the improvement almost show to show. Its wonderful to watch someone take talent, couple it with passion and add the hard work required to become amazing.

Today's set started out with a sultry take on Billie Eilish' "Bad Guy", followed with a rockin' rendition of The Pretenders "Chain Gang". Marina had us all wanting her chains on us. Without a moment's hesitation she had us running down the platform to catch "The Last Train To Clarksville" by the Monkees. Marina's not the first person in SL to dupe me, so wasn't surprised when I found out we were really all aboard the "Crazy Train", just Ozzy would want us to be.

One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this particular benefit was the upbeat nature of the memories of Kat. Marina continues that with a powerful performance of Heart's "Kickin It Out", which she transitioned seamlessly into The Beatles ode to parting "Let It Be". Marina's tone and delivery ensured this was NOT a dirge, rather another great perspective on the peace Kat brought to everyone (gropes not withstanding).

It turns out that our train didn't really go to Clarksville, and the crazy was a typical day when Marina gave us a redneck serenade with Kasey Musgrave's "Trailer Song" followed in quick succession by Gwyneth Paltrow's "Shake That Thing" and The Black Eyes Peas "I Gotta Feeling". The whole place was feeling Marina's voice rocking us at this point. As she wound down her hour of brining us all together to honor Kat, Marina shared a beautiful, and ever so appropriate version of the Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You" and closed out her amazing hour with Joni Mitchell's classic "Big Yellow Taxi".

As the end of this sensational sixty minutes, Marina had bumped the donation board to an incredible L$120,000!!! Such a beautiful tribute to one of the great stars in the SL music panoply, gone too soon. Its really a tribute, both to Kat Vargas and the lives she touched, and the generosity of the people behind AVs who knew and loved her.

Marina is one of the many SL musicians who have used the platform we love as an avenue for personal growth. She started singing live to overcome a fear of singing live. She's performed at jams, and hopes to again. She is a dedicated performer, who takes her talent seriously, and continually works to improve her voice and performances. I strongly encourage you to find Marina's shows and enjoy an hour like the wonderful one I had today.