It has been a while since the venerable Little Rock Folk Club presented a concert. The last one, in fact, was on Feb. 22, 2020. After that, well, you know, things got a little sideways with the pandemic and all.
The music returns Saturday, though, with a performance at Little Rock's Hibernia Irish Tavern by Nashville, Tenn.-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mary James, who records and performs as Mean Mary.
Folk club founder Len Holton is ready.
"I am greatly looking forward to seeing her in person," he says. "She's the complete package. She's got a lovely voice, she writes extremely well and plays three instruments — fiddle, banjo and guitar — incredibly well."
James' sixth and latest solo album is "Portrait of a Woman: Part 1," which was released July 22 and is the follow-up to 2020's "Alone." The first track is the dreamy, banjo-driven "Cranberry Gown." See the video here.
James, 42, is the youngest of six and a native of Geneva, Ala. The family moved around quite a bit, and even spent time living in a homemade tent in the woods of northern Minnesota. She was reading music before she could read words, and wrote "Mean Mary from Alabam," the song that inspired her stage name, when she was 6. Her self-titled debut album came a year later. James performed frequently with her brother Frank, and graduated from high school when she was 15.
A car crash in 2003 left her right vocal chord paralyzed, but she continued performing as an instrumentalist and eventually her voice recovered. Along with her music career, she has co-written several mystery novels with her mother, Jean James.
The Saturday concert is her first in Little Rock. The folk club had originally planned to bring her to town in 2020, but the pandemic derailed those plans.
Saturday's show will feature her solo with guitar, fiddle and banjo. After spending most of her life performing, is there still a little anxiety before stepping onstage?
"Yes and no. I've been doing it forever, but when there's a new song ... I often will just write a song, immediately record it and I've never played it live until after the album is out. So there's always that element of playing it for the first time."
For "Portrait of a Woman, Part 1," James says she was able to take her time during recording.
"I got the songs the way I hear them in my head, instead of always feeling like I'm rushing because I have to get the album out before I go on the road."
Among the highlights is "Big Tour Bus," about a working musician's dreams of touring in style while she's performing "Another sold-out show to a crowd of 10." There's also the Spanish-flavored "A Kiss Can Hide Two Faces" and the ominous "Bette, Come Back."
What was it that drew her to folk music?
"Growing up, I never really considered myself in a specific genre of music," she says. "But I know it does fall into that folk category and I've learned to appreciate that. When I think of folk music, what draws me to it personally is the stories. It's not just, 'Hey, baby, I love you.' There's some depth to it.
"And it's real, acoustic music. You have to appreciate all the nuances when you listen to folk."
Of course, it's the sound that the nonprofit Little Rock Folk Club is built around.
The group has been around since June 12, 1989, and was started by fans of traditional Irish and U.K. music.
"We were at a party talking about people we would never see in Little Rock because nobody would be inclined to bring them," remembers Holton, who was born in Ireland and raised in England.
The biggest name on the list was acclaimed English singer-songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson, who co-founded the group Fairport Convention and recorded with his wife, Linda, before starting a solo career.
"A couple weeks later, I contacted them and said Richard Thompson was in the neighborhood and would you be interested in putting on [a show]? And they said, sure!"
The gig took place on May 3, 1989, at Arkajun House on South University Avenue with Richard Johnson opening.
"It was a cracking evening," says Holton, 72, the host of the weekly radio show "From Albion and Beyond" from 8-9 p.m. Saturdays on public station KUAR 89.1 and, with fiddler Judi Warner, is half of folk duo Kilburn High Road.
The club used money raised during local jam sessions to regularly bring in shows by touring musicians like John Gerard "Jez" Lowe, Martin Simpson and Dave Swarbrick, among others, and became a haven for folk music in these parts.
"I'm glad the wheels haven't come off fully and we're still rolling along," Holton says. "There has been a bevy of folks involved with the club over the years and I'm grateful to them all ... it's been miserable not seeing the audience you've built up over the years. And then there's the impact on the musicians. I felt quite despondent for them. They were no longer able to earn their daily crust."
Little Rock Folk Club presents: Mean Mary
- Where: Hibernia Irish Tavern, 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock
- When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday,
- Admission: $15; $10 military; $8 students; 12 and under free
- Information: littlerockfolkclub.org