Although deriving all his musical influences from the rock and roll canon that includes Tom Waits, Randy Newman and Bob Dylan, Marra's subject matter remains eccentrically Scottish, While lyrically rooted in Scotland, its culture, history and literature, he cannot be pigeoned-holed with a "folkie" image; his musical palette is too varied for that.

A love of jazz and sophisticated pop is always to the fore. He has a a poet's ear for detail and a nimble wit; given an incident MARRA will depict it from an angle that illustrates most effectively the daftness and vanity of humankind.

In 1971 he formed his first band, Hen's Teeth, whose line up included Dougie McLean. He played with "legendary" 1970s rock-band Skeets Bolivar and in 1985 released his solo album, Gaels Blue, on his own label

.".. MARRA's music is soaked in the Scottish experience, strained through a gauze of ragtime blues-piano and shot  with filaments of traditional folk and American voices ... a ghost-white MARRA sits at piano and microphone, delivering caustic visions of the Scottish past and wickedly funny and sometimes achingly poignant, parables of the present in vocals from a Woodbined voice..." Scotland on Sunday