Marie Hines is a dazzling blend of old and new. She writes with the scope and eloquence that comes with age and the purity and hopefulness of youth. Marie’s rosy piano melodies accompanied by her telltale string quartet glow with grand turns of phrase and idyllic themes of love gained and love lost. “I write about things I’ve experienced because that’s what people can relate to. I want to be a part of people’s lives. That’s the reason I make music,” she says.

With her debut album Worth the Fight, Marie Hines is growing up, discovering what she wants to accomplish as an artist and flowering into who she wants to be as a person. Marie’s southern charm, gentle femininity, and enchanting affection for cupcakes and ballet flats attest to her cheery warmth as a person, but Marie’s songwriting goes beyond poise and passion to exude a quiet elegance, luminous and ornate. “A lot of my lyrics come straight from the pages of my diary,” she admits. “I’ve written songs when I have been in the absolute depths of heartbreak, and for me, it’s a release because I’m able to channel that emotion and energy into that song.”

Marie nurtured her musical abilities early while growing up in small-town South Carolina: “I started taking classical piano when I was about six. Music was kind of something I developed on my own. I started writing at the age of twelve, and it was awful.” But something struck with a chord with Marie, who moved to Nashville in 2005 to attend Belmont University. “I came to ‘Music City’ to surround myself with people that were better than me. I knew I needed that constant challenge in order to become a greater musician.” Marie found inspiration among fellow songwriters as well as larger acts like Norah Jones and John Mayer, all the while developing her own niche somewhere between the honest lyricism of Regina Spektor and the graceful instrumentation of Sara Bareilles.

The first glimmering notes of Worth the Fight feel like waking up in the morning; the realization and enlightenment in the title track are both delicate and spirited: “There’s bigger pictures to paint/More horizons to chase/Something better in searching, reaching/Burning, bleeding black and white.” The album’s first single, “Wrapped Up in Love,” is a blushing tune that radiates silvery bliss with lyrics like, “Slurring sonnets like love drunk poets/Take a sip, pass the glass around/Til we fall out of time, lost in a rhyme/It’s so easy being me when I’m with you.” The two songs establish a strong presence and expressive foundation for the rest of the album, and they’ve already received national attention for it: “Wrapped Up in Love” was featured in WalMart’s Valentine’s Day in-store promotional campaign in 2009, and more recently, “Worth the Fight” won 1st place in the Intel Superstars Competition, Singer/Songwriter Division.

Other gems of the record, produced by Eric Kinny, include the resonant lilting “LoveStung,” which stands out as an ode to the fine complexities of valiant love, rich with willowy strings and striking lines, the most memorable being, “We’re scared to death but we’re learning the thrill of the fall;” and sprightly “Paper Heart,” a brisk, quirky autobiography. Of the track, Marie reveals, “I set out to write a song that was completely honest about who I am – both the good parts and the bad parts.” “Beauty” is a rolling, piano-laden tune of empowerment, with words like, “Flowers don’t choose their shades/And butterflies don’t paint their wings/Don’t change me, no/Don’t save me, I’m just fine;” and the smoldering “Over You” closes the album with the melancholy waves of a cleansing rain, the strings swelling with sincerity, the vocals heavy with grief. “I think it’s important for people to experience heartbreak, and I think it’s also important for people to experience what it feels like to break someone’s heart,” says Marie. “People have to experience the good parts of life, and also the bad parts, because together, they bring you to a place where you really understand what it feels like to live.”