Country fans, get ready for an award-winning artist to perform this weekend in our area. Singer-songwriter Memarie plays at 8:30 Friday night at the Courthouse Grill. An encore can be seen Saturday in West Point at the Prairie Arts Festival at noon. “I heard about Memarie through agent Pam Beverly in Nashville,” Wayne Chesney, owner of the Courthouse Grill, said. “She’s a talented, attractive young woman with a bright future ahead of her.”
Memarie’s first single, “What If He’s Right,” stayed at No. 1 on the Christian-Country Radio Broadcasting charts for 10 straight weeks and received an award from the CCRB for song of the year.
“I am a Christian, and I like to have at least one Christian-Country song on my CDs,” Memarie said. “You’ll never see me portray anything other than a Christian.”
Chesney said that Starkville is a great town and a great place to have performers like Memarie to come share their music and talent.
Even though Memarie sings country music, she loves the blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Her influences string from Loretta Lynn, Trisha Yearwood, Bonnie Raitt and Mr. Country himself, George Jones.
“I listen to many styles of music. It’s one of those things that just comes naturally to me,” Memarie said.
Rightfully so. Her family is full of singers. Memarie was winning talent shows by age six. She even recorded her first album when she was eight in Vicksburg and dazzled an audience at New York’s Carnegie Hall in her teens.
Memarie began writing songs as a teenager and eventually hosted a weekly writers’ night in Nashville. She co-wrote a song that her idol George Jones performed with John Anderson and Ken Mellons for Sony-Epic Records. From there she went on to help write songs for other artists.
“I have always been interested in writing songs. As a teen I just wrote my feelings or even something I heard while passing a stranger,” Memarie said.
She would find a melody and make a song out of what she had written. Memarie also believes that anyone who has feelings can write a song.
“My first song was not that good,” she said with a laugh. “The more you write, the better you get.”
Memarie has starred three times on the Opry Star Spotlight, a worldwide syndicated radio show on Nashville’s WSM. Due to the fans’ response, she was asked to make additional appearances after performing in different cities in the Southeast.
So far in 2002, Memarie entertained crowds at the state capitol in Baton Rouge and in Shreveport, La., on the Hayride Show, a show that has presented guests including Tim McGraw, Hank Williams Jr. and the King himself, Elvis Presley.
Now she is touring different fairs and is awaiting her new CD release in February. Memarie can also be seen in “New Horizons”, an upcoming movie from Tony Tarantino.