Marshall Oakman – She’s No Doll, She’s a Woman

Marshall Oakman has released a new single, She’s No Doll, She’s a Woman, and we got the chance to have a listen to it here at Send Me Your Ears.


This is a fab feel good track whose lyrics really make you think about the women in your life. Its a celebration of the importance and significance of women and just bursts at you with sparkling positivity.
With a really original sounding start and lots happening throughout, She’s No Doll, She’s a Woman is a highly catchy and danceable track that I imagine would be a real joy to hear live.
Oakman is very clearly an exceptional pianist. His bio reads that he’s been playing since he was six and it shows. There’s a confidence and class to his playing and the honky tonk solo just blew us away.
It reads as though Oakman has hired studio musicians for all the other instrumentation and there’s some expert bass playing from Kasim Sultan. The piano, however, is the instrument that really carries this song.

Vocally, I was reminded a little of Jamie Cullum or patches of Paulo Nutini and I can hear that Oakman is a great vocalist, but I did feel the vocals sat just a little low in the mix for my taste.
The drumming (Liberty Devitto) was expertly performed, with some great fills and various riffs to signify the changes between sections in the song and give good separation. We particularly liked the marching style section that really helped rise the song into the next section.


The occasional harmonies were well placed and with some interesting note choices. They sit well in the mix.
The chorus is ever so catchy and the addition of the tambourine in this section helped to define it well and maintain interest.


The song overall is really well mixed. It feels, though, as if it hasn’t been mastered. The song is significantly quieter than other commercial releases and has a few dominating and also missing frequencies which the mastering process would fix and really make it sparkle.
Oakman is very clearly a seasoned performer. We tried to find out a little more about him but his online presence isn’t in line with the quality of musicianship we’ve just heard. Our best advice would be to speak with a mastering engineer and take a look at getting his website and socials up to date.
She’s No Doll, She’s a Woman is a positive, engaging pop rock song with a great message and some outstanding piano playing worthy of Billy Joel’s praise.