Mean Mary

Mean Mary from Alabam'

Mary James, known as Mean Mary, was born on March 22, 1980 in Geneva, Alabama, and is based in Nashville. Wikipedia says she wrote songs before kindergarten, among them a theme, "Mean Mary from Alabam'", at about age six, which earned her the name from the press. From 1986 to 1989 she was a regular on the Country Boy Eddie Show on WBRC-TV in Birmingham. She later played the Nashville Palace, The Nashville Network and Printer's Alley, and spent about three years in Los Angeles on background and stunt-double work before settling in Tennessee. She plays banjo, guitar, fiddle and mandolin, and her bio counts 11 instruments; she is an endorsing artist for Deering Banjos.

Her records include Thank You Very Much (2006, with Jamestown), Walk a Little Ways with Me (2010), Year of the Sparrow (2013), Sweet (2016), Down Home (2017, with her brother Frank James), Blazing (the soundtrack to her novel Hell Is Naked, dated 2018 by Wikipedia and 2017 by MusicBrainz), Cold (2019), Alone (2020) and Woman Creature (October 4, 2024). The bio claims 18 albums and a 2024 review 19. She has co-written novels since 2011, among them Sparrow Alone on the Housetop (2011) and Wherefore Art Thou, Jane? (2013, a Readers' Favorite gold medal in mystery), and has toured the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Europe. Her press kit claims more than 4,000 festivals and concerts. Awards include first place in the 2017 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest for "Choctawhatchee Waltz" and a Vox Populi award in Americana song at the 13th Independent Music Awards for "Iron Horse".

She appeared on the cover of Banjo Newsletter in May 2016, on BBC Radio Ulster's The John Toal Show, and at the Red Jacket Jamboree at the Calumet Theatre in 2018. Setlist.fm has only a few of her dates, including the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs in May 2015, The Foghouse in San Francisco on November 29, 2023 and the Evron Centre in Filey, England, on May 3, 2025. Roots Music Report's Duane Verh praised Cold for its vivid lyrics, passion-rich vocals and articulate banjo play.