I started by asking if Mae was nervously excited, or excitedly nervous about the launch of her EP?

“Oh no, the nerves are gone. We’ve been working on this thing for so long that this is just such a breath of fresh air when you finally get to deliver the thing to everybody in the world.

At that point, it’s kind of like taking a test. Right before you take it, I always had this relief of, “I’ve either studied enough and I’m going to do well, or there’s nothing I can do in this moment to change it.” So I am just fully excited for it to be out there.“

You obviously yearn after the days of old. Are you thinking that country music needs to go back to its roots? It used to be country and western, but we’ve lost the western. Are you thinking that perhaps we need to go back?

“I don’t think we need to go back. I think we just need to always remember where we came from.  The country genre has expanded so much in the last decade, specifically, and the Western culture and rodeo culture and all of that has brought a big boom to the country industry in general.

But I personally like the old-school sound. I’m such a fan of the tradition of it, and I grew up on classic country — even the ’60s and ’70s — Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, those kinds of artists.

That’s just something that’s a part of me as a country fan, and obviously you can hear it in the music I make today.

Everyone can take this project to mean what they want it to mean for them. That’s the most successful place to be as an artist. I think, “I created it, and then you get to make it be whatever you need it to be for you.”

But for me, this is just waving a flag for my favourite era, getting to completely nerd out on the decade that really shaped who I am as a person and a fan, but also a country artist.

Doing this myself today, just like so many of my heroes I’m honouring with this project, it’s less about going back and more about just making sure we bring those pieces of nostalgia and the things that made us who we are with us as we grow and change forever.“

So your covers — is it something that you’ve wanted to do for a long time?

“Yes. I’ve built a lot of my audience on covers online and just connecting with people who are hungry for that nostalgia, or whatever these songs were a soundtrack to in their life.  I think music is such a piece of art that really can time-travel you back to a specific feeling or a moment or a person.

This was just a really good tool for me over my whole life and my whole career. It’s not just about being a new voice, a new face and a new name to people; we’re bonding over a song we both love that I’m singing.

It’s easier to introduce yourself as someone no one’s ever heard of when it’s like, “Well, you already know we both love this song, so maybe dip a toe in and see what else I do.”

That’s been a great marketing tool that just kind of organically worked for me and helped me find my people who do love the original music I also make.“

Was it difficult to choose which ones you did? Are you choosing songs that have got special memories, or that take you back to special times and places?

“This first project with “The ’90s Called” was kind of self-informed. These songs have just been a part of my life and a part of my story for so many years, and the intention of them ending up on this kind of project was definitely not there. It wasn’t a strategy. It just kind of all worked out how it was supposed to.

I definitely have a dream of making more editions of “The ’90s Called” — or maybe “The ’80s Called” — or maybe it’s just some different volumes, because it is very hard to pick five songs that I think are timeless and that I want to celebrate.

I think this could probably go on forever and ever in my career because it’s just an endless amount of songs. But these five and the original really all just made sense. This is probably the only time in my life and career I haven’t had to do a lot of overthinking. It was just kind of like something in my story for years now has woven all of these into making sense at this point.

That’s really special, when you can know for sure you have the right songs on there. That’s a feeling I hope to feel again as I continue to make music.“

I love the way you’ve flipped She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind to I’m Not the Cheatin’ Kind. That’s my favourite by far.

Yes! That lyric — “I’m dressed to kill, in the dress he bought me” — had me hooked from that. From the second you hear it that way.

Obviously, it’s done perfectly the first time. Brooks & Dunn did it, and Ronnie Dunn wrote it by himself. There’s nothing wrong with that version.

But something I noticed quickly was that I had the unique ability and perspective to sing it from the woman in the story and to give it a whole new life 30 years later.

These songs were done absolutely perfectly the first time, and you’ll never find me saying anything was wrong with them. But I hope that people who’ve never heard them get to hear them on this project, and people who love the original, just like I do, get a fresh feeling from it because it’s been so much fun for me to make.“

You grew up in Hope, Arkansas. I had to Google that — I had no idea where it was!  It’s not actually that far from Nashville, is it?

It’s about seven, seven and a half hours.  But, in the big scheme of things, I have friends here who have to fly across the country, they have to fly to get home. For me it is a one-day drive and I can still be back home to see family, and so I am really grateful for that.

Coming from a small town where no one ever leaves that county — a tiny, tiny part of the world — it was a big move for me to move to Nashville.  It’s been really hard to hang on to relationships and stay present. You’ve got birthday parties and funerals, holidays and all of that that you end up missing in this industry.  But Arkansas and Tennessee are pretty similar states as far as climate and things like that, so it wasn’t like I was moving to a whole new world. The big city was a big change for me.

So sometimes it does actually feel as if it’s still a million miles away.

“Oh, absolutely. Loneliness can find you when you’re in a big crowd, even.  The homesickness is something I think I’m going to have to carry with me wherever I go. But it’s a bittersweet feeling because I’m really grateful to have something to miss and to carry with me while I’m on these wild adventures.“

You sang at the Arkansas rodeo when you were seven. It’s a bit early to be knocking things off your bucket list at the age of seven!

“I think I was born with this “shake things up” mentality that I have. I’ve just been fearless in this part of it.

I’ve never been scared to sing into a microphone or stand in front of a completely silent room. I’m not that bold in every piece of my life and personality, but there has been some God-given, magical piece that I found literally since age seven when I’m singing for people.“

So you knew then that that was what you wanted to do?

“I knew it’s what I had to do!  That’s something that you definitely learn spending time in Nashville in the music industry. I’ve had a lot of friends and peers come and go and really hit it as hard as I did and think this is what they want to do, but eventually they’re able to be like, “This isn’t worth it,” and give it up.

That’s something we in Nashville kind of get to see. There are people that get to choose whether they want to do it or not, and those people have the option of giving it up eventually.

And then I’m in the group that we don’t feel like we’ve ever really had a choice. This is the gift we were given.

I’m not good at literally anything else, and so I think I’ve just tried to follow that gift my whole life. There’s no telling where it leads me from here, but I know there is no quitting the music.  I am the music, and that is beautiful and also super unhealthy and complicated at times.“

That sounds wonderful.

“Yeah, I believe it’s my purpose for sure, which is awesome to have that feeling.“

So you’re going on tour with Little Big Town. When does that start?

“In November. I am so excited.  We’re going to be in theatres, and I’ve been lucky to play anything up to a stadium, down to super tiny, where there’s two people listening to you in the crowd. I’ve really gotten to play all kinds of stages to all kinds of crowds, and the theatres are really my favourite right now.

People are sitting, they’re listening, the acoustics and the actual sound quality in a theatre are made for live sound.  So a band like Little Big Town, singing four-part harmony — just as a fan, I’m going to freak out getting to hear this! I know their crowds appreciate the same kind of live music that I do, and so I think it’s just going to be a perfect fit. I cannot wait.“

Especially for playing the songs from your The ’90s Called EP, that is going to work absolutely brilliantly.

“And it’s so much fun to have those songs.

I have so many originals that I’m so proud of, and that people are singing back to me, which is insane. But having those timeless country songs that I’ve put my own spin on, it’s really special to be the opening act and pull those out and have the crowd singing along with you.

It’s just a nice icebreaker. It’s a nice introduction when people have never heard my name, my voice or my music.  We can bond over our love of that timeless country music, and so it’s always just a nice little icebreaker to have.“

That sounds as if it’s going to be absolutely wonderful.  Thank you so much for your time, Mae. I really appreciate it, especially as I was late.

“No problem. Thank you so much, Helen. I’m so glad it worked out.“

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