'Hometown Girl' to Join Blues Fest
Mary Shaver Band Among Musicians Set to Perform at Alma Mater
By Sara Gebhardt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Audience members who hear Mary Shaver's blues music will often compare her to Bonnie Raitt or Janis Joplin. Although Shaver is flattered that she reminds people of her musical idols, those associations have made her work harder to leave her own mark musically.
"I really want to have my own definitive sound and my own voice. When you're an artist, you struggle to be different from others," said Shaver, who was born and raised in Cheverly.
Mary Shaver, shown here at the D.C. Blues Festival in August 2002, will appear with her band Sunday at the Bluebird Festival. (Daniel Rosenstein)
Her band, the Mary Shaver Band, will join headliner Clarence Carter and other blues musicians Sunday at the 11th annual Bluebird Festival at Prince George's Community College.
For Shaver, who regularly plays her mix of blues, soul and rock throughout the area, including a monthly gig at Lasick's College Inn in College Park, making the cut to perform at the festival was a big deal. After attending several blues festivals through the years, Shaver, 43, said she is excited to be onstage at the community college because it will be like a homecoming. She graduated from the college in 1995, having lived in the county her entire life before moving to the District several years ago to shorten the commute to her paralegal job at National Geographic.
"My ties and my roots are in Prince George's County," she said. "I am a hometown girl, and I can't wait to perform because for me it's a way to give back to the college. The teachers and administrators were there for me when I needed them."
Shaver needed the community college when she was trying to get her paralegal degree. At the same time, she was a burgeoning blues artist, performing with the county-based blues and southern rock band One Thin Dime, a group that began at Fairmont Heights High School.
After continuing to pursue music in her off hours, Shaver decided to drive herself a little harder and do what her Fairmont Heights 11th-grade English teacher, Bill Wax, had been pushing her to do for more than a decade. (Wax was also a blues disc jockey on WPFW-FM.) When she turned 40, Shaver made her first record, "No Time Like Now," produced by Pete Ragusa, a drummer for well-known local blues band the Nighthawks.
Three years ago, when she made the CD, Shaver dedicated it to another one of her musical idols, Eva Cassidy, who had recently died. Soon after making the CD, which was composed entirely of cover songs except the title track, big things started to happen for Shaver.
She formed her own band with Cassidy's former band mates, guitarist Keith Grimes and drummer Raice McLeod, and she began carving out her niche in the music industry.
With the help of Grimes and McLeod, she said, her style has evolved into a combination of Texas blues and heartfelt soul music with a rock-and-roll edge.
"It's hard to write a good blues song since they've all been written," Shaver said.
But she has dedicated herself to creating her own music and lyrics for a CD she hopes to produce by the end of next year.
"I really want to show growth as an artist," she said.
The Mary Shaver Band performs at 2 p.m. Sunday at Prince George's Community College, 301 Largo Rd., Largo. The Bluebird Festival is free to the public and runs from 1 to 6 p.m. on the college's campus. Performers include Clarence Carter, the Hardway Connection, Rick "the Gator" Bolling, Al Muntzie and the Renaissance Gospel Singers, the Daryl Davis Band, the Reggie Wayne Morris Band, Ruby Hayes, Warner Williams and Jay Summerour and the Legendary Orioles. 301-341-3043. www.pgcc.edu/timely/2003/blues/.
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