Hello :) I'm so glad you decided to start reading this because I know a lot of people just like to jam to the music, so I won't make it too long and boring. My name is Mercy and well, I love to sing and write music. It's what I would like to do the rest of my life and I've spent most of it trying to do just that. Born in May of 1985 in Houston TX, I didn't pop out singing like most people say they do!!! lol.but was born into a very musically inclined family. My dad, his mother and sister were incredible singers and on my mom's side, her father, who sang in The Houston Opera. While growing up my dad always paraded around the house playing songs on his guitar by The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, etc. So it was decided that my older brother and I take piano lessons starting at age 10 because it might be a little easier than guitar to learn. What's crazy is, I'll always remember my piano teacher (I think her name was Mrs. Tarkington lol) because she always made me feel horrible if I didn't practice at home or if I came back to her house without learning songs in my work book. She scared me lol. But to this day I thank her. I was also 10 years old when I sang my first ever solo in elementary school. It was "I Could've Danced All Night" from the musical "My Fair Lady". My mom recorded it and later when we watched it you could hear her saying, "Oh my God, can you believe this? This is my daughter. My daughter can sing".
I never really thought I would try to go professional with it until I met Amber Bird, my manager's daughter. After my parents split in 96', my mom moved my brother Dustin and I to a town called Tomball TX. I met Amber in 7th grade in our choir class and she knew how much I loved singing and doing as much of it as possible. During that year I performed as Reno Sweeney in the musical "Anything Goes" and Amber came to see it. Afterwards, she told me I needed to make a tape for her dad. I wasn't sure if it would be beneficial for anything but I did anyway. I recorded a few Celine Dion songs and gave it to her at school, not really expecting a whole lot to come out of it, but I didn't know I was in for one of the most amazing and fun rides of my life. Ronnie Bird (with TriMark Records) believed in me so much that he decided to put tons of time and effort into help making this happen. I started recording country songs (yes, country) at Rosewood Studios in Tyler TX, where LeAnn Rimes had recorded her huge hit at the time, "Blue". Nothing was really happening from it, so we tried things more on the Pop side. I ended up coming out with a techno-ish song and sound, but just wasn't really feeling it. I even tried to get in touch with my Latin roots and recorded some Shakira like songsI mean gees, the list goes on lol. Along these years though, I had the privilege of working with some GREAT and talented people: Greg Hunt and Gary Leach, Walt Aldridge and Gary Baker in Muscleshoals AL, etc.
The years were going by and there in the back of my mind would be this doubt telling me I wasn't good enough and that I could never make a living off music. Not until Ronnie and I met an amazing person here in Nashville TN, Mike Sistad. Thank God he believed in me too, because I was giving up on myself! Through him, we met Jason Garner (Producer) and Thom Hardwell (song-writer) Kristy Deck (song-writer) and Nancy Peacock (song-writer) who in turn, introduced us to Gary Burr. I never felt so blessed in all my life! Ronnie and I were traveling back and forth from Houston to Nashville to cut new songs with Jason and to finally get me writing with some of these talented song writers. I would write songs of my own on the piano, but never really shared a whole lot of them with others until I met these writers. During this time too, I was still in High School, studying and trying to make good grades, focus on graduating. I ended up writing this song on the piano, played it at the Talent Show and won first place!! I'm not gonna lie, I was so proud. It felt good. I went on to write my Senior Graduating Class Song, which I thought no one would actually like, but.I showed it to my fellow choir mates, they liked it and we all sang it at graduation at Texas A&M, Spring 2003. Those moments changed my life. Seriously. To write a song and have an entire choir sing it!!! I mean, Holy Crap!!! I knew that this couldn't be the end of it.but only the beginning!
After High School, I went on to take 2 years of college, put together a band with my brother (he quit his metal band for me :) to be my drummer), and also ended up joining an amazing vocal worship team at Fellowship of the Woodlands. I also worked 2 jobs, one as a waitress at a golf course and the other at a retail store. Life seemed crazy busy, but my brother and I were writing songs and we were performing around Houston every now and then. Church ended up taking up a lot of my time, but I don't regret a single moment of it. Being able to do the things I did at Fellowship, changed my life completely. My time there made me feel that singing absolutely had to be apart of the rest of my life.
During the Summer of 2006 while writing with Gary Burr, he asked me, "Why don't you move to Nashville"? And my response."Ya knowI don't know". I didn't really have something extreme holding me back in TX and I had already established quite a few relationships in Nashville. So, I didn't enroll back in school for the fall, left my jobs, said a sad goodbye to my church and asked my brother to move to Nashville with me. We struggled in the beginning, ya know, coming to a new town, making friends, finding jobs. But here we are! I ended up releasing my first album "I Can't Let Go" in November of 2007 at The Rutledge here in Nashville. I love playing shows here, but am also branching out to other states and cities as well. Currently, I'm working on writing/recording new songs for a 2nd album and booking a small tour along the south, south/east coast which is scheduled to take off this Fall. I'm also working on a small demo for a European project with a producer friend of mine. I'm just very blessed to have all these things going for me and I'm very grateful. Thanks again for coming to my page and I hope you enjoy my music and lyrics. Ill leave you with a personal favorite quote of mine, "You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the world is unfolding as it should". -Max Ehrmann, 1927
