The Next Country Star

The next country superstar? 19-year-old hits high notes with Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Texans

You may have noticed that NRG Park has been filled to the ten-gallon hat brim with RodeoHouston everything. From star-studded concerts by firecrackers like Miranda Lambert, John Legend and Tim McGraw to late nights at The Hideout to drink tickets and thousands of calories dedicated to fried Oreos. And more.

It's been a busy month.

But it has led me to meet and interview Mary Sarah. Though she hasn’t quite made the big rotating stage inside NRG Stadium, she is a musical force straight out of Texas to be reckoned with. At the age of 19, she has the soul, maturity and debut album even the most talented and well-known musicians dream of.

If you could handpick a jukebox with some of the best names in country music, odds are, Mary Sarah's already sung with each of them.

The singer-songwriter who grew up in Richmond, Texas, has already sung a lifetime of music. Her debut album Bridges, which was released one day after her 19^th birthday in July and has been selling like crazy on iTunes, Amazon (they sold out) and in stores like Boot Barn, has her singing alongside some of the biggest and most traditional names in all of country music.

If you could handpick a jukebox with some of the best names in country music, odds are, Mary Sarah's already sung with each of them.

Rolling Stone magazine called her a teen prodigy and it stands to reason that when artists like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Vince Gill jump at the chance to sing a duet with her, she's got their backing and seal of approval. On the album, she sings Parton's classic "Jolene" with the country superstar, "Where the Boys Are" with Neil Sedaka and "Heartaches By the Number" with Ray Price.

The talented teenager promises not to let it go to her head and not to forget her Texas roots. Though she’s in Nashville now taking the country scene by storm, she says “when all is said and done, I’ll be in Texas when I retire.”

National anthem

Singing is definitely her passion, something she’s done since she was a really little girl. And the national anthem is at the top of the list. "I love to pay respect to my country and those that fight for our freedom. I’ve met so many wounded warriors and soldiers and it’s just been such a blessing — we wouldn’t be sitting here today doing this interview if it wasn’t for them,” she says once again sounding wiser than her years.

Among her most treasured memories happened right here in Houston at a Texans game in front of 80,000 cheering fans. “I was sitting there and J.J. Watt was on the field and it’s like OMG — it’s J.J. Watt! I have a video of it on YouTube and it went great, except nobody knows that when I went out there I didn’t have a pitch pipe — I usually know it. We start walking to the 50-yard line and the big speaker that was down there for everybody in the stadium to hear, for some reason we walked right in front of it and it blew my ears out.

"It was so loud and then the lady asks ‘are you ready?’ and I’m like I guess. I started a whole key higher than I usually do and literally in my head I’m like just go for it, if you mess up it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t even nervous as far as forgetting the words, it was more like if I can hit these notes.

"In the video you can hear my dad on the 'rockets' red glare' — the highest part of the song — and he knew it too. He was holding his breath the whole video and finally when I hit it he was like YEAH! It’s funny, but not a lot of people know that it was pretty crazy. I would say it was probably the best national anthem I’ve done but I would never do it again at that high key — it was so nerve racking and I didn’t know if I could hit those notes."

Mary Sarah, who performed for Boot Barn at the Arena Hall during the rodeo, is excited to start singing some of her own songs to show fans she has the songwriting skills to go along with her pitch. But for now, she's beyond ecstatic with all the tracks and experience her debut album has gotten her.

Bridges Track List:

1. "Jolene" (featuring Dolly Parton) 

2. "Crazy" (featuring Willie Nelson)

 3. "Fightin’ Side of Me" (featuring Merle Haggard) 

4. "Heartaches By the Number" (featuring Ray Price) 

5. "Go Rest High on That Mountain" (featuring Vince Gill)

 6. "Dream On" (featuring the Oak Ridge Boys) 

7. "Texas, When I Die" (featuring Tanya Tucker) 

8. "Rose Garden" (featuring Lynn Anderson)

 9. "What a Difference You’ve Made in My Life" (featuring Ronnie Milsap) 

10. "Where the Boys Are" (featuring Neil Sedaka)

11. "My Great Escape" (featuring John Rich and Big Kenny)

 12. "All I Wanna Do Is Sing My Song" (featuring Freddy Powers) 

13. "I’m Sorry"

Mary Sarah.

Photo by © Russ Harrington

Mary Sarah.

music

Movie Review

Feuding couple fights for survival in dark comedy Over Your Dead Body

Photo courtesy of IFC Films

Jason Segel and Samara Weaving on Over Your Dead Body.

When dysfunctional couples are depicted in movies, about the worst that typically happens is an acrimonious divorce. But in the new comedy/thriller Over Your Dead Body, the husband-and-wife have already gone way past that point by the time they’re introduced to the audience, with their plans leaning toward murder.

Dan (Jason Segel) is a low-level filmmaker relegated to directing pop-up ads, while Lisa (Samara Weaving) is an actor making do in small theater productions. The film finds them heading toward a rare getaway to a remote lake cabin, but it’s clear from the start that the married couple has been at odds for months, if not years. As the film begins, Dan clumsily drops hints at an alibi for his planned murder of Lisa to his ailing dad (Paul Guilfoyle) and others.

His shoddy planning was already sussed out by Lisa, who turns the tables on him when he tries to attack her, revealing a plan of her own. The situation naturally heightens their shared enmity of each other, but their blind hatred turns out to reveal the presence of Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Todd (Keith Jardine), two escapees from a nearby prison who were helped by guard Allegra (Juliette Lewis). What was once a shared murder plan turns into a fight for survival, forcing Dan and Lisa to work together.

Directed by Jorma Taccone (The Lonely Island) and written by former SNL writers Nick Kocher and Briand McElhaney, the film aims to mine comedy out of darkness. Dan and Lisa’s ire for each other is palpable, and their interactions early in the film are uncomfortable. As the film turns increasingly violent with the introduction of other unsavory characters, most of the humor is derived from the creative ways people are attacked and the ultraviolence that results from them going after each other.

It’s a little tough to get fully invested in the story when the filmmakers throw the audience directly into the plot with almost zero setup. There’s not even a cursory montage of Dan and Lisa being in love, so it’s hard to care a lot about their current hate for each other. Likewise, the presence of the prison guard and escapees is completely random, and the three of them aren’t utilized well in the story despite having a couple of well-known actors portraying them.

The saving grace of the film, though, is the twists and turns it takes in the final act. Everyone on screen is put through the wringer, with each of them suffering multiple injuries or worse. The mayhem becomes so chaotic that it’s almost impossible to tell what’s going to happen next, which slightly makes up for the fact that the story as a whole is lackluster. Even though the audience knows they’re being manipulated, the sequences are entertaining enough to overcome that fact.

The cast as a whole is solid. Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Shrinking) uses his comic sensibility to keep the proceedings light. Weaving (Ready or Not) has done multiple movies in this vein, so she knows how to navigate the comedy/thriller waters. Olyphant feels a little out of place, but he has a presence that elevates his part. Lewis goes a little too manic in her part, and Jardine ably embodies the dumb brute.

The comedy history of Taccone, Segel, and Weaving keeps Over Your Dead Body as a positive experience even when the story doesn’t quite measure up. The film never becomes fully predictable, giving the audience a great dose of pandemonium that lifts it up despite its other faults.

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Over Your Dead Body is now playing in theaters.

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