New American fan!

[libby]

Hi,

I am a big fan of Hayley Westenra, in fact I'm a moderator on her official forum! hayleywestenra.forums.umusic.co.uk/

I was just recently introduced to Mary Jess by John Harvey. Well, actually, I've been seeing his posts on Facebook for some time, it just took me a long time to get around to clicking on any of them! Haha. I finally did just the other day, and last night I ordered her CD from Amazon UK! Now that must mean she's good, because my standards are pretty high, being a fan of Hayley Westenra, you know. I just thought her songs, from the clips on Amazon and youtube sounded really nice, and they're different, not all the usual suspects that you find on many CC artists' CDs. I was a bit disappointed that the Downton Abbey song isn't on the CD, but I did find that US Amazon has it available for download, thankfully!

I am from Seattle, Washington, USA. Any other American fans here?

[Simon]

Hi Libby and welcome.

Mary Jess has, I think, a unique ability to combine the classical crossover with the eastern influences she obtained whilst living in China

The Downton Abby song came quite some time after Shine was released which is why it's not on the album. Also the release of the soundtrack had to coincide with the TV show starting. I'm an album fan and don't go much for individual track downloads as the norm, I didn't care for the rest of the soundtrack so on this occasion I 'broke my rule'.

I'm sure John has told you there is plenty of footage of Mary Jess on YouTube to enjoy as she has performed several concerts, appeared on tv on a number of occasions, the latest of which was when she sang Abide With Me at the FA Cup final in front of 90,000 football fans and 100's millions of viewers worldwide, to much acclaim. Many of the links can be found here in the forum, look around and enjoy.

[John]

Welcome Libby!
I am glad you have finally made it here.

I know it was 'Abide With Me' that finally brought you to click on that 'play' button because it was something you knew. The truth is though that you will find very little familiar in Mary-Jess's repertoire. It is all new and it is all wonderful (well, I think so anyway ).

Having said that, I think you might particularly like Mary-Jess's Songs of Praise appearances, in this thread maryjess.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=media&action=display&thread=79&page=1

Yes, we have one regular contributor in America (who you might already know) and a few other American members, but I will let them introduce themselves.

[bobscullen]

Welcome Libby, any fan of Mary Jess is a friend of mine. Mary Jess is like you said different from the usual CC artists and I think that is also what adds to her fan appeal. Bob

Sent from my HTC Explorer A310b using ProBoards

[Admin]

Hi Libby,

A warm welcome to the forum! I have seen you around a few times on Hayley's forum.

We have a few American members and you might be interested to know that the second highest number of visitors to the forum are from the USA!

So glad that you have discovered Mary-Jess and her wonderful music, I hope you enjoy it here.

Dazza

[Jenny A]

Wow, I'm so slow! I haven't been here in a little while since things here in Mary-Jess-land have been quiet.

It's great to have you here Libby! I recognize you from the Hayley forum!


Jenny♥ - A fellow American

[libby]

Thanks for all the welcomes! I forgot to check back here for so long! I will make sure to put this forum in my favorites to make sure it's easier to get here!

Yes, it was John's link to Abide with Me that finally lured me to check out her voice. I decided if she was really that good, she would impress me in this song, and she did. So I went to her website next, and liked what I heard there, so I moved on to Amazon from there to hear more. I did watch a couple youtube videos. I will try the Songs of Praise ones, too, and the Beegee's song, too. I actually am not familiar with that song, at least not the title. I'm not much of an expert on the Beegee's. I know a lot of their old ones, like umm... well, you know, the ones they play on the Oldies' station. LOL Something about Nobody gets much love anymore and... let's see... oh, there's an upbeat one too that I can't think of the words right now... Oh! Stayin' Alive. I guess I don't so many after all. LOL I guess I would know them if I heard them, but I can't name them off the top of my head. Oh wait, Hayley sang How Deep is Your Love on her first, debut album that's hard to find these days. Okay, there's one.

And in case anyone is confused, on Facebook, I go by Kimberly, which is my real name. Libby is the name of one of my pets, which I started using way back, and have stuck with it mostly for recognition purposes. I hope you're not even more confused. LOL

[John]

Welcome back Libby. It's been a bit quiet here lately so you haven't missed too much.

Being a Beegee's expert wouldn't have helped you with 'Don't Cry Alone'. It was a new song written by Robin Gibb for his Titanic Requiem, which was released in late March this year. When Mary-Jess sang it at Northleach a week beforehand I think it was the first time any of us had heard it and it left a lasting impression on all who were there.

I posted Robin's own version in the Northleach Spring Music Festival thread here maryjess.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=concert&thread=45&page=5#1017 so you can compare it with Mary-Jess's performance, for which the video was only made public a few days ago.