The way MaRynn Taylor made it in Nashville is like a scene out of a movie. She and her family traveled to Music City to attend 2019 CMA Fest when she saw Black River Entertainment’s flyer advertising a “60 Second Spotlight” for aspiring artists to perform a one minute song in front of the label’s executive staff. Despite being just shy of the 18-year-old age requirement, the label execs invited her to perform a song on stage and were left so impressed that they surprised the teen with a record deal five months later during Taylor’s appearance on the WSM radio show Coffee, Country and Cody. But before launching her dreams in Nashville, Taylor was raised in humble roots in her native Michigan where her father taught her as much about music and songwriting as he did about strength and resiliency in living with muscular dystrophy.
In this edition of Female Friday, Taylor shares how music formed a special bond between her and her father, how her latest single “I Know a Girl” is a dream come true and why it’s important that fans know how to pronounce her name.
What drew you to country music?
I grew up listening to 90s country, mostly the women, and the storytelling like Trisha Yearwood’s “Walkaway Joe” or “She’s in Love With the Boy,” I think that organic and natural way of singing and telling that story really fascinated me. It’s all I listened to growing up. My dad was really into John Denver and James Taylor and they’re also really good with storytelling. There are so many ways of singing and storytelling because talking and telling a story and singing and telling a story is very different. So “Walkaway Joe,” there’s some points in the song where she pauses and lets the story take it. I think a lot of storytelling isn’t necessarily showing off your voice, belting it out, it’s more letting the story have its spotlight. I think that’s really hard to do because I love belting out a song, but I also love showing off the cool story and having people catch onto it. Country music has always been in me. I’ve always loved singing it, I love writing country music. It’s my favorite genre ever.
With your own songwriting and music, how do you let the story take the spotlight?
I came out with a song called “Dads and Daughters” about a year ago. One thing I love about storytelling is not only stories about my life, but any story, one that comes from the heart I think is very different. “Dads and Daughters” was really my life story of when I was born and when I was a teenager and then someday to when I get married. The second verse talks about how she’s learning how to drive and she’s taking the keys and he’s letting her go, and that was something that my dad had a hard time doing. I was the first born and I was his baby girl, I’m still his baby girl, but it was hard for him to let me go on my own. Talking about that was really truthful and honest. It told that story throughout the song, and getting to hear that back is very emotional and heartwarming to me. I think stories naturally do that. I wrote that with a friend of mine, Jason Earley, and that was my first write that I had that wasn’t with my dad, because my dad taught me how to write songs. I grew up listening to him play in church and he gave me my first guitar, and so writing this song was almost like my gift back to him. After I brought the work tape home to my dad, we all started crying, and it’s so powerful that music does that. He got to sing the third verse on the song, which makes me cry even more. Writing it was so special and him singing on it was so special. It’s very near and dear to my heart.
Tell me about the song “The Greatest Gift” that your dad wrote for you and how it impacted you?
When I was born, he wrote me a song called “The Greatest Gift” and he sings it for me every year for my birthday about how I’m his greatest gift and I’m so special. He really tries to make it special for me. I can’t remember what birthday was, I was really young, it was when I could remember one of the first times when he would sing it to me and it makes me cry every time. Being the first born, it’s special. They took time with picking out my name, and that was also something that I wanted my fans to know is how to pronounce my name because it is different and not a lot of people have the name MaRynn. I’m so glad that they chose such a unique name. My dad wanted Mary and my mom wanted Erin, and so and my dad goes ‘MaRynn’ and they’re like, ‘oh, that’s cool’ [laughs]. It is so special how my parents were really wanting to get my name right. I can only imagine when I’m going to have kids someday how hard that can be because you want it to be cool and special. Having such a unique and different name, I think everybody is special and amazing and you make it who they are, but my name having that uniqueness makes me feel unique and different.
What are some of the biggest lessons you learned from your dad?
He played in church and that was my first time hearing music and really loving it. He still is the biggest rock star ever. It was a small church, but there were people there, and I thought he was so brave going up there. I looked up to that, I wanted to do that. When I was 11 [or] 12, I went on stage for the first time and he came to all of my shows and he was the person that I would talk to beforehand. I would be so nervous, like stomachache nervous, and he’d be like, ‘remember that you love this, focus on that. Don’t focus if people are going to criticize you, just know that you love it and enjoy it.’ That advice has gotten me very far. It’s always helped me [to] look at it that way, remember that it’s about the music. He’s always been in my corner. When I first showed interest [in music], he was very pumped, so proud he had a kid that liked music as much as him and someone to share that with. It’s definitely a friendship of music.
One of the very important parts of my relationship with my dad and how he inspires me every day is he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when I was born. Ever since I can remember, he has struggled with it every day. The kind that he has, it gradually gets worse. But he has told me throughout the years, one thing that has always stuck with me is that he says ‘enjoy every day to the best you can. There’s always a light and positivity somewhere in your day that you can find.’ That coming from him, who he could wake up every morning and not want to get up because it is so hard, but he doesn’t. He gets up and he is happy to see his family and happy to see the sunshine. In that way, he inspires me a lot more than you know every single day.
The challenges that he’s faced having muscular dystrophy, has that poured into his music and songwriting? What has he taught you about songwriting?
In high school, he played football and baseball, and then his 30s hit when he had me and it started the muscular dystrophy, he was diagnosed with it, and it got worse. One thing that he strongly turned to was music. He could still play guitar, he can’t really anymore, but there’s always music in the house. I think that was part of the light that he was talking about, and it makes me who I am. I’m very thankful that I get to do this and that I can make him proud. I want people to know how thankful I am I get to do this as a career. This was my dream of getting to wake up every day and my work is singing and playing guitar and songwriting. [I’m] very appreciative and blessed and thankful that I get to do this every day. He always said to write from the heart and to sing from my heart. What he loves about it and what he taught me about songwriting is to let words have it. I think that was a good piece of [advice] I’ve learned from him, and from the ladies in the 90s, but that was a big thing he taught me as well.
Tell me about your single “I Know a Girl” and the story behind it.
When I first heard it, my immediate reaction was ‘I relate to this by not having a boyfriend and wanting one; of wanting all of those fun adventures that a relationship has.’ I really wanted to make it very me. I grew up with 90s country like Jo Dee Messina, Trisha Yearwood, Carrie Underwood, I really wanted to pour that into it and I hope people hear that. It was very fun to make. I got a demo of it during the summer and the first thing I wanted to do was to go in my Jeep and listen to it with the windows down. I really love this song, I’m pumped for it. It’s so fun to hear people [say] ‘I love listening to this song in the car,’ I’m like, ‘yes, that’s what I do, you get it’ [laughs]. I think it shows a really fun side of me. I think “Dads and Daughters” was very meaningful and it was a slower song. I’m a very happy, uplifting person and I think the song shows that happiness, windows down free kind of vibe, and that’s very me. Growing up, this is the song that I always wanted to make, so getting to make it [and] put it out was a dream.
What are your other passions in addition to music?
I’m a very creative person. I love to paint and be creative in other ways. I love to bake and cook. I crochet once in a while, I think that’s really fun. I’m a very crafty person, so anything crafts-wise like painting, I love to do stuff like that. I love painting flowers, something with a lot of color. I feel like painting and singing are using different parts of your brain. I love a song where I can see it in a place, and I think painting can do the same thing. If I paint flowers and they’re bright, it reminds me of summer and it gives me that type of feeling.
What do you hope that people learn about you and your music?
I think one of the first things that my label recognized with me is that I’m really the girl next door. I’m just me. I like to stay humble and not try to be something that I’m not and try to be something that people would want me to be like. I’m going to be myself and be real. I want them to know how blessed and thankful I am to be able to play music for them and to show how special they are to me. How my parents make me feel special, I would like to make them feel special.