Mary Lamont-How Lucky! But with hard work...

I am a true country hick.  There is still a Lamont farm in Ontario, Canada, started by my great grandfather, passed down to my grandfather, uncle, and cousin.  I grew up in a tiny town where everybody knew everybody.  I was 
always singing to myself, so my Dad signed me up for the church choir, and then the choir leader asked me to sing solos in church. I was petrified.  But I did it, and I liked it a lot.


When my folks moved to Long Island, I took off to New York and one of my first jobs was working for Alice Cooper’s management (and coincidentally, the first live rock show I ever saw was Alice’s, in a small Canadian venue).  Over the next couple years, I moved through music-related jobs in magazine publishing and booking agencies.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was all prep for my own band:  a first hand music business education.  Meanwhile, my husband, photographer Jim Marchese toured Europe with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, seeing a first class band on the road.

Mary Lamont and her husband
photographer/guitar player —Jim Marchese

I met Jim by chance in New York.  He kept pushing me to join a local band, and for a while I sang backup while he played lead guitar.  It wasn’t long before Jim insisted that we needed our own band.  Which brings me to the main point:  the Mary Lamont Band was all Jim’s vision.  If it hadn’t been for Jim, I wouldn’t have a band, I wouldn’t have written songs, or played the major venues we’ve played, gotten interviewed for ASCAP Audio Portraits, or been the first American country band to tour Mainland China.

So after my Dad pushed me to sing in the choir, my husband pushed me to write and sing in our own band.  I need to be pushed!  Thank you, gentlemen!  By the same token, there’s an advantage to being a certain age.  I’m “over 40” so I don’t have to get anyone’s permission for anything!  (Did I mention that Lamonts are stubborn?)  A lot of experience, school of hard knocks: tragedy, triumph, heartbreak, jubilation, it all comes with livin’ for a while....hmm, I think there’s a song there.


To be a successful singer/songwriter, you have to have all the facets in place, besides obviously writing good tunes and having the right people to play with:  booking, management, promotion, sound...whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring others.  It makes for long days, but the rewards are very satisfying.  And be able to look at yourself in the mirror:  don’t do anything you feel uncomfortable doing.

Karen Hudson and I were paired to sing “Hickory Wind” for a Gram Parsons tribute a few years ago, and we got along instantly!  And I recently saw Karen perform some of her “Sonic Bloom” songs – beautiful!  The “Sonic Bloom” cosmos seeds she gave me are rapidly growing in my garden, and I look forward to seeing flowers this summer.  Thanks Karen, and much success with “Sonic Bloom”!


Find out more about the fabulous Mary Lamont and her hard working band at:
www.marylamont.com

How does Mary's garden grow?
With SONIC BLOOM cosmo sprouts!