Mean Mary invites, "Walk a Little Ways with Me."
This rich voiced singer, songwriter, and maestro of 11 instruments has recorded some of her most compelling songs to date. On this newest release she keeps both bare feet on the country side of Americana while still burying her toes deep into her traditional roots.
From the first notes of her Goodtime banjo we find her sitting alone in her “Big Red Barn” singing and playing her heart out for disinterested ducks and geese and chickens. We’re right with her when she finally escapes to the beach where the hunks line up to deliver her long awaited kiss – or is it kisses? And if we walk a ways further with Mary we learn the devil sports a “Rose Tattoo,” the “Rough Road Ahead” is not for the half-hearted getter and the faint-hearted quitter, and “Joy” has finally come to the girl who played with fireflies.
Earthy, haunting, sometimes LOL stories may be the backbone of Mary’s music, but when her distinctive voice travels from deep consuming emotion to sparkling trills of joy in a heartbeat of music, we know where the soul is. And when her musical hands unleash banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle to frolic tastefully through a composition we know again it’s only “Mean Mary” James doing what she does best—everything!
"Wrong," Mary's quick to add. "What about my gifted friends and family?"
Well, almost everything, we correct. There was help from big-brother Frank James on some featured guitar spots, a bit of rhythmic input by spoon smacking virtuoso Tim Miller and “hard-hitting” drummer Allen Marshall, and a few imaginative bits of songwriting by mother Jean James, who has her own string of writing credits and a soon to be released novel—cowritten by Mary. Oh, and let’s not forget farmer Bob Arnold, Mary’s surprising “find!” While Mary was out in the fields loading Bob’s buck-a-bale hay into her truck, this perfect Johnny Cashesque voice rode past on his bailer. Mary knew at once she’d found the other half of her new duet and album title song, “ Walk a Little Ways With Me”.
