Background
Her father Gary Sobonya is a mandolin player of Polish and Hungarian descent, and her mother Felicia is of Spanish, Paiute, and Indigenous Mexican descent. She grew up in Nevada City, California, where she wrote verses since she was a young child.
Career
At 17 she traveled to Patagonia to volunteer at a school for indigenous children where she taught herself to play the guitar, and in 2006 she debuted her first self-released album A Bundled Bundle of Bundles. A year later in 2007 she released her first studio album Faces in the Rocks which featured her delicate acoustic guitar music alongside the Native American flute by Gentle Thunder, and mandolin played by her father Gary Sobonya. The album had a Native American theme to it, filled with references to nature and the Native American people.
Since the debut of her first album, she has drawn comparisons from Joanna Newsom to Joni Mitchell, and she has toured through North America and Europe.
She released a cover version of The Cure"s "Lovesong", on the Manimal Vinyl tribute record to The Cure, entitled Perfect as Cats., Mariee Sioux’s second album, was recorded between April 2010 and August 2011 in Placerville’s Moonsoon Studios and in the Nevada City’s Sun Dial studios.
A review on allmusic.com commented positively on influences from Joanna Newsom, Bert Jansch, and Nick Drake. was released in Europe on March 5, 2012 on the Almost Musique label, and in the United States of America in April 2012 on Whale Watch Records.