Mary Garnett Edwards, born in Edmonton, released her debut album White Lightning at age 63 and there’s no slowing her down now. It’s a style described by The Vancouver Sun as “part high lonesome twang, part folk blues croon with a fair bit of cosmic country thrown in.” Thanks to “Golden Eyed Boy,” Mary Garnett Edwards continues to weave wonderfully wicked tales of life’s dark side.
Name:
Mary Garnet Edwards
Genre:
Folk rock pop, rock, outlaw country
Founded:
As a child, I started playing guitar, and I started with folk music and country music. As I grew older, I added rock and bluesy categories to my music I thrived on traditional folk music. In 2020 my husband passed away, and I felt myself in an empty nest. While I cleaned out the basement, I found the old folk music I had written, and I started to listen to it. I had a cassette player inside my van, I popped some of that music and it brought me to tears. It was then that I decided to do my music again, so I began recording. I asked Andreas Schuld, a producer friend, if he would help me. He listened to Grifter, a country song I had written, and said “Yes Mary, I’ll help”. It was a good thing to keep my mind on when there was Covid going on.
# of Albums:
The first album I made was called Street Spirits. After that, I did a project with my husband Doug called For Stone. Then I started my project with Andreas called White Lightening. This new album is called Madhouse, I’m starting to promote it with singles.
Latest Single:
Golden Eyed Boy, available on YouTube. It is a wonderful little video we made to go with the song. It came to me in a very visual moment as it’s a place I like to go to when I’m overcome with life. I like to make up little stories that I turn into songs. That song has a little bit of me in it, but it also has a lot of fiction. It is about a prostitute who is stuck and will never get out of the lifestyle that she is in. She has hope of escape when a young man comes to take her away, but in the end, she takes her life and the love that came to rescue her is beaten in an alley and killed. It’s not a happy song but that’s where I go sometimes in my mind’s eye. I came from a poor family, and I saw a lot of tragic things growing up. I think it’s stuck with me my whole life.
Latest video:
Golden Eyed Boy was made by Director Jennesia Pedri and cinematographer Dale Shippam. We made the video at my friend’s house which is at the moment being torn down, it was a 1920s very old house and to me, it looked like an old brothel so that’s what we turned it into in one day. I wrote out the script and my girlfriend MaryJean Dunsdon was the head girl in the video. I hope everybody watches it. It’s just like a little movie. I’m very proud of it.
Favourite musician growing up:
Joan Baez, Judy Collins Gordon, Lightfoot, the Guess Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Patsy Cline Hank Snow and George Jones. My mother had a very old stereo and she would play all kinds of old records on it, my mother liked music and she would sing to it I listened to those little records a lot of them 45s singles hits of everybody at that time like Tom Jones and Ray Charles or Fats Domino. My mom liked country or folk music she especially liked Gordon Lightfoot or Joni Mitchell so she would play that music, I got a taste for it and it’s still in me now.
Favourite musician now:
Justin Bieber and Meg Myers. She did a really good version of Running Up That Hill. I like Bob Moses, I think he’s super talented. I sort of like everything, I like music, it’s in me and I love to sing.
Guilty pleasure song:
Usually something by Sade, I Miss You Like The Desert Miss The Rain. I like anything she sings, she puts me in a good place.
Live show ritual:
Well, I always like to have a nice dress, It makes me feel confident. I think dressing up puts me in character, puts me in another place and it gives me confidence. Yeah, I have a lot of dresses and that’s my ritual.
Favourite local musician:
Shari Ulrich. I just saw her perform in Songbird North, she is definitely a professional.
Early bird or night owl?
Both. I’m kind of a freak. I like to go out and party, I take my husband and we go to live music shows. I love to listen to the musicians play. I am fortunate to have a lot of musician friends and be invited so yeah, I like to go out and I like to have
my cocktail.
Road or studio?
I like the studio and I love recording, but the road is definitely where I am bound. I really am looking forward to being able to do more shows I am an animated person and I really love singing in front of people. I love connecting, I enjoy it when people come up and introduce themselves to me after I sing. I am not shy, I like talking to people. I am grateful to just have somebody see me sing.
Any shows or albums coming up?
I am manoeuvring my way toward Britain for some shows there because my music is getting played on quite a few radios and podcasts there. I’m hoping to get some shows there and also I would like to go to different places in Canada to play. In the last two years, I have recorded two albums worth of material that I’ll be releasing over the next year.
Where can we follow you?
Website | Spotify | TikTok | Contact | YouTube
