I am absolutely overjoyed. The last time we saw Mary she left an indelible mark on everyone whose path she crossed. By then (thrice) we were all besotted with her and her delightfully dotty brother, Frank. Her visits to the UK had been few and far between and she had remained a solidly kept secret. Fortunately a musician friend with an even more eclectic taste than I, suggested this lady was too good to ignore, although he had doubts that she would ever be likely to cross the pond.

I listened, he was right, and he was wrong. The next call I received from him was from a different person, panicking. Mean Mary was in Blighty NOW playing that night about 30 miles away. Before you could say knife we were on the way.   Three hours later I was in love with Mean Mary James and handcuffed to her banjo, blackmailing her to visit Bluefunk, not next tour but next week. Job done!

  

​This is something completely different. A unique style of music blended from American hill country folk-music, bluegrass, southern state civil war legend, log cabin backwoods philosophy, snake catchin', bear fightin' survivalism, underscored with near-death experience and enough courage to win a war in a weekend.  It is a potent, heady cocktail thrown into a shaker with ice and a slice and shaken up with the entire extraordinary life story of Mean Mary James.

What you get borders on the unbelievable; anyone who writes a song at 4yrs old titled Mean Mary from Alabam and the local radio stations stick you with a tag that stays with you for life has to be special.

 

Mary is an incredible banjo player, and then she picks up the fiddle, then the guitar..............

And the songs, the songs, the songs...................

 

I could easily give you a link or two to the youtubes but instead here's a link http://meanmary.com/bio to Mary's Biography. There is also one video of Mary aged 6yrs. Read the bio, all of it. It is an extraordinary tale, in fact it is a movie already written. Her story alone will make you want to see her.

Mary has been to us thrice before, all different, all unforgettable. She first arrived with her brother Frank and the pair of them blew us away.  What a fabulous relationship they have after performing together since they were literally tiny children. 

The second time she played solo and took every heart in the room away with her. Wonderful. Frank returned for the third visit to look after his l'il sister and take the beatings.

 

This time we look forward to seeing both siblings together again, it will be joyous to be here.  

Put your best teeth in - expect to laugh a lot.