By Stephen Smoot
Mary Remsburg, who performs and records under the name “Mister Mae,” proves that one might be able to move the girl out of the country, but you can never take the country out of the girl.
Especially when that country happens to be Pendleton County.
The release of her album came on Nov 11, but she has already made a major impact with her music. Remsburg studied at Shepherd University to become a classically trained pianist and teaches as part of the college’s community music program. Remsburg also tutors at St. James Church in Charles Town.
She started writing music early in life and her album contains songs that she has written since the age of 15. Many of those songs carry the influence of her early surroundings. “The Smith Creek Playhouse is a huge bucket of memories for me,” she explained, adding that she enjoyed the “productions where you would see your ordinary everyday local folks . . . putting on incredible sold out performances.”
Remsburg exclaimed that “there is life and art and music in our hills!”
As with many who grow up in West Virginia, the landscape looms prominently in memory and influence. “Growing up,” Remsburg shared, “my siblings and I had literally thousands of acres around our house for us to explore.” Though her family owned no property, neighboring landowners allowed Remsburg and her siblings to explore the bounty of nature surrounding them.
Early in life, Remsburg embraced a variety of musical styles that influenced her over time. “I have such a vivid memory of dancing to Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’ . . . in our living room.” Her mother, Sharon (Teter) Granofsky who taught classical piano, helped to lead and shape her early development as an artist.
Different family members brought different muses to her development. “My mom is also a wonderful dulcimer player and hammered dulcimer player,” she shared. My grandfather played mandolin as well.” Her older brother and sister, on the other hand “blasted Jimi Hendrix, Ben Folds, and Radiohead in our house.” She also performed with the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir for nine years, getting the opportunity to perform at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the White House.
Like many who grew up in Pendleton County and performed music, the church experience played a significant part in influencing her. “I would sometimes play piano duets for special music with other pianist friends at church,” Remsburg said. She also performed in worship bands and “was a church accompanist and choir director at an Episcopal church in Winchester, Virginia, for seven years!”
The musical style Remsburg developed, she says, falls “under the umbrella of ‘folk,’ but there are definitely influences of jazz and Appalachian music.”
For a time late in her childhood, Remsburg struggled between her love of the outdoors and her love of music as the path to take forward. She eventually chose the life of a musician over wildlife biology.
In 2012, Remsburg started attending Shepherd University, but still felt strongly the ties that bound her back to her old life and home. Some of the music on “Sounds Like Home” is colored by those feelings of homesickness that many Appalachians feel when they leave the mountains that have nurtured them through so much in life.
The last song on the album, “Letter to Momma,” serves as almost the coda of an autobiographical chapter, summing up her feelings about what lay behind her, balanced by the pull of her new life in a very different place, though still in West Virginia.
It also marks a transition in life as well. Remsburg released the album on her 30th birthday which for most marks the end of a younger perspective and the onset of adult maturity.
Remsburg shared that she retains a powerful love, appreciation, and respect for all in Pendleton County who nurtured her as a person and as a performer. “I really am eternally grateful for those that have loved me, supported me, and most importantly, had patience with me while I developed and grew throughout life there,” she concluded.
