Dr. Mary Crowell

Dr. Mary Crowell lives with her husband, Wesley, and their son, Simon, in Athens, Alabama. She has taught piano and composition for nineteen years. As a resident of north Alabama, she currently teaches music appreciation, class piano, and private piano lessons at Calhoun Community College in Decatur, Alabama. She also teaches yoga at the Athens-Limestone Wellness Center. She loves playing Rachmaninov, Gershwin, and Bach, practicing yoga, gardening, and gaming with good friends.

She has a B.A. in piano performance from Huntingdon College, M.M. in musicology from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and a D.M.A. in music composition -- also from the University of Alabama. While acquiring these degrees she accompanied ballet classes (and still twitches when she hears "Let's go. Five, six, se-ven, eight!"), helped organize receptions and run concerts as a house manager, graded many music appreciation and history papers, and taught freshmen music theory, ear training, and sight singing.

She also snuck around and performed jazz whenever her teachers weren't looking.

Mary was introduced to filk music by Karen Murphy and John Brewer who paid her way and drove her to her first filk convention -- GaFilk 2001. And now people cannot keep her away with sticks. She's written several torchy songs (Magnus Retail, and Oh Milo); blues songs (Legolas and Page Not Found Blues); and some that defy description (The Song Will Tell Me True). She enjoys making lead sheets for the GaFilk Songbook and is having a good time learning the ins and outs of the latest incarnation of Finale -- Finale 2008.

More recently Mary played concerts at Confluence 2003, TorCon 2003, GAFilk 2004, and Noreascon Four, Interaction 2005, Conchord 2005 (with Three Weird Sisters), Capricon 26 (as music GOH), Concertino 2006 (as toastmistress), and OVFF 22 (as GOH), and MARCON (with Three Weird Sisters). She was toastmistress for GAFilk in 2004 as well. She was nominated for a Pegasus Award in the category, Best Performer, in 2003, and was nominated for that same award again in 2004 and 2005. Her song, "When I Grow Up" was nominated for a Pegasus Award in the category Best Comic Book Song that year. In 2006 Mary was nominated yet again for a Pegasus award in the category Best Writer/ Composer. Her song, "Legolas" was nominated in the category Best Torch Song. You can listen to "Legolas" in its entirety on Mary's MySpace page: www.myspace.com/magnusretail.

Poison Ivy, her octet for flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, french horn, trumpet, and trombone was performed at the UAH Local Composers Concert in March of 2004. Mary gigs in Athens, Alabama at downtown bookstores and garden markets and the greater Atlanta area.

In August, 2004, Mary accepted the invitation to join Three Weird Sisters and looks forward a long and happy collaboration with the band. She also plays with Atlanta based jazz band, Play It With Moxie. She has finished recording Courting My Muse, her solo CD with Greg Robert. Courting My Muse is available through various filk dealers, Amazon.com, and CDBaby.com. It is also available at Pablos on Market, a delightful bookstore and coffee shop on the square in Athens, Alabama!

Or, check out what other things she's up to at www.magnusretail.com!

Legolas

Copyright ©2002 by Dr. Mary Crowell, All Rights Reserved
Used by permission

Dedicated to Blair Holley and her crush

I like to watch him on the silver screen.
‘Built like I like ‘'em, he is long and lean.
Yes, he is,
And I am his.
'Gotta thing for an elf, can't help myself,
O Legolas!

He's not a talker, likes to use his bow
To good advantage on his orcish foe.
Yes he does,
And I'm in lust.
I just love pointy-ears, don't care who hears me,
Legolas!

INTERLUDE
The Ring is s'posed to find ‘'em
And in the darkness bind ‘'em.
I don't wanna lie to you.
There's just one precious thing
that is needing a fling.
It's Legolas!

I'm just a'sittin’here all by myself.
I'm thinking naughty thoughts about this elf.
Yes, I am.
‘Don't give a damn!
Gotta thing for this shy, tall, elven guy,
O Legolas!

There's those who argue ‘'bout the movie's plot.
Because of time, the film left out a lot.
Bombadill
is not my thrill.
I'll just sit here and stare at his long blond hair,
O Legolas!

INTERLUDE
This girl I know likes Strider,
And no. I won't deride her.
But she can have her Aragorn.
The return of the king, won't inspire me to sing
Like Legolas!

I like to watch him on the silver screen.
‘Built like I like ‘'em, he is long and lean.
Yes, he is,
And I am his.
‘'Gotta thing for an elf, can't help myself,
O Legolas!