Rene Marie began her professional music career at age 42[1] performing under her married name René Croan; she released her first album using this name in 1999.

"[1] This arrangement of the national anthem forms part of the titular suite of Marie's 2011 CD, The Voice of My Beautiful Country (Motéma Music).

She specializes in writing her own music, commenting that this is not the norm in jazz in one of her songs, "This for Joe," after a club manager got angry with her for singing originals.

Her 2011 release, Black Lace Freudian Slip contains only three songs that she did not write, and one of those was written by her son, Michael A. Croan, who performs on the track with her.

She released a number of singles in 2007–2009 focused on homeless issues, "This Is Not a Protest Song", and the racial problems in Jena, Louisiana, "3 Nooses Hanging".