Banjo, fiddle, and guitar player “Mean” Mary James has quite a following on YouTube. Intrigued by this, I began listening to her music more closely. Mary has the unique ability to mix together a variety of musical styles, which can appeal to a wide audience—traditionalists, along with those who like a more progressive sound. I particularly admire the ease at which she can switch between those two poles. Mary grew up on the border of Florida and Alabama, and has been performing since she was 6 (when she recorded her first album!). Her name comes from a song she wrote when she was five, Mean Mary from Alabam. (She isn’t really mean at all.)
Bob Piekiel: Tell us about your new album.
Mary James: “Sweet” has 14 songs, which is more than I’ve ever done before. I think I’ll go back to a 10-song album next time! This one is quite diverse. I was trying to stick more in it because I can go all over the board genre-wise, from bluegrass to rock and roll, Celtic, and so on. This one kind of took on a life of its own while recording. It has songs that I originally didn’t think were going to be on the album, songs that I’d just written, and it’s become my most diverse album of all.
BNL: How did you choose the material?
MJ: It kind of decided on its own! But I’ve written a lot of songs in the past year, and I’ve been playing songs that people would they be on an album, so I took some of those, and then added more that I thought would fit. We have a bit of a theme—a lot of the songs have that “sunshiney, happy-go-lucky” feel to them. There’s some banjo tunes, and a variety of other things. It wasn’t exactly a planned situation.
BNL: How did you get interested in the banjo, and when did you start playing?
MJ: I started with guitar, just before I turned 5. The next year I got into playing the fiddle. The banjo came along when I was about 7. My parents and I were in a pawn shop, and I pointed to a banjo and said, “I want to learn that next.” They ended up getting me an inexpensive, $50 pawn-shop banjo. I just went from there with that.
BNL: Who were your biggest influences, and how did you go about learning to play?
MJ: I’m self-taught. I learned from books, tab books. When I started on guitar, I learned how to read music, and learned songs that way. I learned how to read music before I learned how to read! My mother let me go through music books, and I had never heard the artist before, so I learned them from the sheet music, especially the songs that I thought were pretty. I would add them to my repertoire. I was influenced by many different artists and their performances. When I started with banjo books, I loved a beautiful arrangement of Blackberry Blossom by Geoff Hohwald. I thought that was just great.
BNL: Is the banjo your favorite instrument?
MJ: I like them all, but the banjo’s been good to me, especially with Youtube. For years the fiddle was my main instrument. I played fiddle with other groups, and fiddle solos, but I play multiple instruments because it gives you a lot of variety. Sometimes, an instrument you didn’t think belonged in a song all of a sudden becomes a tool. My song Bad Ol’ John had an electric guitar, and then I thought, maybe the banjo would add that special, quirky little sound to it, and something that first seemed to be straight rock-and-roll became a lot more fun!
BNL: Why do they call you “Mean” Mary?
MJ: When I was about 5, I wrote a song with my mother called Mean Mary from Alabam’. It was kind of my theme song back then. The press picked up on it, and would say things like “Mean Mary is coming to town!” That’s when I stopped performing that song! Things you did that were cute when you were 5 aren’t as cute when you’re older! (laughs)
From: https://banjonews.com/2016-05/mean_mary_james.html
