Mary Beth Maziarz started writing songs as a kid in Illinois -- jamming out her compositions on the funky upright piano in her family's basement. When Mom and Dad decided she'd made the cut, a grand piano came onto the scene upstairs, and she started playing when 'company' came over. Piano cover gigs soon started competing with her steady seventh-grade babysitting nights (and winning), so she ditched the neighbor kids and began taking the song thing more seriously.
She first performed her original music as a freshman in high school, playing her song Friends Through the Years for other girls while playing hookey from tennis. The seniors really liked it they cried! -- and badgered her to play it for the school talent show. Mary Beth played it for the talent show and the crowd was on their feet. She was hooked.
In college at Northwestern, MB played in local cafes and composed scores for student plays. The college scene was glutted with emerging songwriters, but Mary Beth carved out a devoted fan base while playing a weekly residency at Tommy Nevins Pub. Singing at the pub, also a home to Mary Beths dubious waitress skills, allowed her to experiment with new material and develop a better rapport with audiences. (Patrons drunkenness helped her nervousness.) A year at Oxford in England also brought more pub-playing opportunities; then, as now, British Sterling was hammering the dollar, so the little sing-for-her-supper gigs and attentive audiences really nourished the young performer.
After school, as her compatriots largely went off to find fame & fortune as actors in Hollywood or as number-crunchers at Arthur Anderson, MB announced she was moving Out West. . . to Utah, specifically part-time home to movie stars, record moguls, and other fabulously connected people. The shi-shi ski-town of Park City proved the perfect spot to build her set list, meet fascinating people, and learn to schuss with the best of them. (Well, with the marginally managing of themthere are a LOT of world-class skiers that live in Park City.) She began a longterm gig at the Riverhorse Café, a beautiful, upscale lemon-in-the-water restaurant on Main Street. The Riverhorse gave her music a high-profile place to grow in Park City and begin distributing her first two albums (Something Real and Snowed In) as her performances there began to draw serious support from locals and glitterati visitors alike.
In 1999, Mary Beths music caught the ears of producers of the popular tv show, Dawsons Creek. They contacted her about featuring one of her songs, Hold On, in the final scene of the Season Three Premiere. Everything changed. More of her songs were featured in the show. Other folks came a callin. Fans wrote to her, clamoring for all the DC songs on one album. She listened, printing 200 CDs of the songs and demos that appeared on Dawsons Creek, calling the project A More Perfect World. They sold out in nine days. She made more.
From there, she put out the shimmering Goodnight, Goodnight and continued to find her music in demand for tv shows (Party of Five, Everwood) and films (Broken Hearts Club, The Real Thing). Mary Beth also found herself performing at outdoor festivals, bigger club gigs, and upscale house concerts-- private concerts in ballrooms, outdoor stages, and music rooms around the country. In November of 2004, her music jumped the pond when her song True Believer became the theme for Bianca Wege Zum Gluck, a show that airs every day in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. She is brushing up on her German. There is much brushing to do.
From there it was time for the fields to rest a bit. So she took her time with recording another project, letting the songs really find their core meanings. The rest proved helpful, as when she finally started getting antsy to record, the perfect producer appeared in Craig Poole. Pooles rock-solid rhythmic sensibility and love of sweet old-school funk/R&B brought a new energy and groove to the tracks. He also introduced Mary Beth to the magic of vintage keyboards, bringing in Rhodes, Wurlitzers, and other beaucoup beautiful sounds to the mix. And so Wish was born.
The fourteen tracks on Wish represent five years of writing and an occasionally schizophrenic heart. Themes of brand new love, discovery, separation, dreams, and recognition thread through this, her fifth, album. The range of styles is fascinatingly diverse, but Mary Beths writing (and singing) voice remains a lush constant. This album, from this insightful and soulful writer, is sure to become a soundtrack for many of lifes most moving moments.
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