"The first thing that attracted me to Meredith was her ability to communicate emotion with her voice. It's very rare to find someone as young as Meredith who can do that on command in front of a group of people live." -Mercury A&R Chief Keith Stegall
The label's fresh new artist, Meredith Edwards, is a prime example. Edwards first sang for the folks at Mercury in the summer of 1999 and she immediately caught their attention.
Meredith Edwards grew up in the small town of Clinton, Mississippi and has been singing publicly most of her life. "When I was about three years old, my mom came to pick me up at dance class and my teacher came running out and said, 'Meredith just sang 'Jesus Loves Me' and it was really good!' After that, my mom put me in pageants and I'd sing for the talent part," Edwards recalls. After singing songs like "Zippity Doo - Dah" in the pageant world, Edwards joined The Mississippi Show Stoppers choir when she was five. The choir traveled around the state promoting the Mississippi Agriculture Museum. One of Edwards' pals in the group was *NSYNC's Lance Bass.
"Lance is from Clinton and we were in that choir together for years," Edwards says. "In high school, we were both in a nationally renowned show choir called Attaché. There's also a girl in the pop group Innosense and two guys from the country group Marshall Dyllon who were part of Attaché at different times. People think it's so strange that we are all from this same small town and were in this group, but we all worked hard and were committed to music."
While her friends gravitated to pop music, Edwards decided her heart was in country. "I always wanted to sing country music," Edwards says. "I grew up in Mississippi around country music. I always sang songs like 'Stand By Your Man' for my solos. My voice is country and it's what I love. My singing style is more contemporary country. My influences are singers like Martina McBride and Trisha Yearwood. The women that just wail are the ones that strike me."
Edwards' self - titled debut album, Reach, is produced by Stegall, pop icon Richard Marx, and Robin Wiley. According to the singer, each producer brought something special to the mix. "Keith is such a great producer. And he was so fatherly to me. He is so nice - one of the nicest people I've ever met," Edwards says. "He was so laid back and it was such a non - stressful environment.
"I've always been a big fan of Richard's. He is one of the smartest people I've ever met and he has the most incredible work ethic. Watching Richard and his engineer in the studio was like watching a comedy special on television. They just clicked and they made everything so much fun to do. It would be like one o'clock in the morning and he'd be making jokes while I'm trying to sing.
"Robin was a really good producer, too. I'm a real perfectionist and so is Robin and when you put the two of us together it was great. We had a lot of fun."
Edwards' producers were equally impressed with her professionalism in the studio. "Meredith's very mature," Marx says. "What I love most about her - besides that she takes direction really well - is that she's this young innocent Southern girl but, at the same time, she's very poised about doing the job. I was impressed with how much time she spent in the control room even when she wasn't singing. Meredith came down to the studio when Lee Roy Parnell played guitar on one of her songs. She wanted to meet him and thank him, but most of all she wanted to watch that process. She'd sit next to me and hang out and learn. People like that will end up producing their own records."
Edwards admits she was picky about choosing songs for her record. "I wanted all songs that I really liked. They had to have a good story, or a good beat and had to really speak to me. "'A Rose Is a Rose' is a mid - tempo story song," Edwards continues. "The story is about a 'girl growing up - no shoes on her feet, tangles in her hair/poor little girl who doesn't have anything - but her smile comes shining through. The chorus is: 'A rose is a rose and everyone knows that sunlight and a room to grow is all she ever needed.' It's just a beautiful song and I love it."
Songwriter Tia Sillers, who won a CMA award for the hit song "I Hope You Dance," contributed "In Any Given Moment" to Edwards' album. "It's a powerful song," Edwards says. The lyrics say: 'In any given moment the world will turn around, the lonely heart will feel love and lift it off the ground and everything you dreamed of will suddenly appear.' Tia is such a great songwriter."
Edwards also recorded a couple of tunes written by her producers. "'Reach' is one of my favorites," Edwards says. "It's a ballad written by Richard and Keith. The song is a waltz and it's just absolutely beautiful. It talks about a girl and a guy who aren't together but one of them wants to be with the other. One of the lines says, 'Our love's ready to begin, the answer's just within your reach'. It's sort of like a compromise thing."
One thing Edwards won't compromise is her music. "More than anything, I want people to enjoy my album and like what they're hearing. I want them to respect my voice and my music. So much work goes into this; I just want people to like it. I want everyone to know that I love music and I do this because of that love."
Source: http://MeredithEdwards.com
