Wife and mother to nine children, singer/songwriter Marie Bellet puts a unique twist on the typical ideal of today’s modern country artists. Her impeccable songwriting skills and dynamic vocals come from an honest place within that will touch your heart and soul with their real-life meanings.

Never one to boast her numerous talents, Marie remains humble and true to the essence of her character and passion for music.   

Marie hails from the Midwestern university town of Champaign, Illinois where she grew up with five sisters, and two brothers. Her love for the “warmth and confusion” of life in a large family would later come in use for her.

Marie attended Rice University in Houston, where she first discovered her love for singing country music. After finishing college with a degree in Economics from Swarthmore College, she went on to earn her MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

While working MBA jobs in the health care industry, Marie sang demos, including duets with country music star Alan Jackson, lent her talents as a back-up vocalist, and recorded jingles on her off-hours.

In 1987, shortly after being married, Marie and her husband Bill moved to Singapore, and then Spain before returning to the United States four years later with three young children. As Marie’s family continued to flourish, she began writing songs about life as a housewife and mother in a world that “no longer values these roles.”

Those experiences inspired Marie to release her first album, “What I Wanted To Say” in 1997. The album featured a collection of songs that debuted Marie’s talents as a singer/songwriter.

Her sophomore album, “Ordinary Time” released in 2000 focused on the temptations of a culture that constantly encourages women to “have it all.” Songs such as “I Live Next To A Highway,”  “I Am The Wife Of A Busy Man,” and “I’ve Got An Idle Mind” hit home with their heartfelt messages of a society that measures success upon earthly possessions.

Returning to her roots, “Lighten Up,” released in 2003, is a collection of story songs and personal reflections filled with upbeat reminders teaching us to forgive one another and to learn how to love. “Lighten Up,” the albums title track, is an up-tempo bluegrass-flavored tune that features exceptional pickin’ sprinkled with a touch of spunk from Marie while the tender “Lay It On Down,” a song that tells the story of letting our worries and troubles go, showcases a very delicate side of Marie.

Coinciding with the birth of her ninth child, Marie’s latest release, “A New Springtime” offers the listener a magical journey into the world of Marie. This time around Marie gives us hope and courage to address the issues that we face in our everyday lives. “A New Springtime” the title track is a beautiful song that teaches us to renew ourselves, and learn from the mistakes we’ve made. The clever tune, “I Can Only Do So Much” features glorious vocals from Marie.

Marie offers a different vision of what it means to be a “fulfilled” woman;    

"My witness is really just to show up with my kids at the grocery store. For me, that is where the culture war is fought, surrounded by glossy magazines that promise happiness if you shed pounds and obligations. My writing began mostly as an alternative to rearranging the furniture. It has become my way to encourage those who want to rebel against the self-centered misery of our time. To make sacrifices for marriage and children is not stupidity or victimization. It is the noblest thing we do."

Marie admits that life at home as a mother can be frustrating at times. In fact, that is what her music is all about; the struggle and the value of that struggle.

“My music is about the drama of everyday life, staying in love, and going through the day’s routine, one more time, with feeling!! I want to tell other mothers that they are not crazy or alone. If my music can do that, it will all be worthwhile."

Its time for country music to make room for an artist who believes in the originality and sacredness of family, tradition, and pure love for the art of country music!

(Biography courtesy of Country Stars Central)

It was our pleasure to interview Marie during (CRS) Country Radio Seminar week this past March at her home outside of Nashville, TN.

(CSC) 1. It is great to be here with you. Please tell me what’s new with Marie Bellet?

(Marie Bellet)

Well, I had a new baby eighteen months ago. It’s been very low-key lately. I’m starting to get out and do more shows. I’ve got six shows coming up from now until the end of the year. Mostly I’ve just been hangin’ out and taking care of the family, it’s been nice. Sometimes babies do that for you, they refocus you. I haven’t been doing much writing though, and I’m looking forward to that coming back. The writing comes and goes, and I never know when that’s going to happen. I can’t really keep a train of thought going lately with the little one running around. I’ll have a lot more to say when it does come back. (Laughs)

(CSC) 2. Tell me about your latest album, “A New Springtime.” Why did you decide to change the style of music from your previous releases?

(Marie Bellet)

The last two albums are actually very similar; “A New Springtime,” and “Lighten Up.” I just wanted it to be fun. When I listen to music, I need a pick-me-up. I think that the style of music also tells the listener how seriously they should be taking the topic. When I went on FOX news I came up with a little sound bite for myself, in case I only had thirty seconds, and it was “love your children, forgive your husband, and laugh at yourself.” That’s very much the themes in my songs. I wanted something that sounded light, but I also love the intimacy of a lot of the bluegrass instrumentation. It just takes you right down to earth; it isn’t grandiose. There are such great players in Nashville for those kinds of instruments. The Dobro, mandolin, and cello, (sometimes put on for the more serious songs,) really express exactly the way I wanted it to sound.

(CSC) 3. Growing up, what country singers inspired you?

(Marie Bellet)

I really started listening to country music when I was in college because I was down in Houston, TX. I sang Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. I also liked Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. They were sort of Pop/Rock/Country singers. I love Alison Krauss, I love the way that she sings. I like a lot of the light lyric kind of voices. There was a time when I lived overseas, and I didn’t hear any country music or American music. When we came back Trisha Yearwood was just getting established, I remember her first big single, “She’s In Love With The Boy,” and she sounded like Linda Ronstadt to me. She got me real excited about listening to music again!

(CSC) 4. Being a mother, wife, and singer/songwriter how to you balance all of that, and what is the most gratifying part of being a mother for you?

(Marie Bellet)

Well my writing just comes out of my interior monologue, because I am home most of the time, I think about that stuff often. I try to make sense of the struggles that come with being a wife and a mother, and somehow that turned into songwriting. I don’t really know how to write with other people, I write the words and the tune altogether at the same time. I can’t play an instrument very well, so I think up the tune, and I picture the song in my head; then I take it to a good guitar player and we do demos. When that is complete I take it to my producer. It seems like every two or three years I do another album. I have another batch of songs that seem like they are in a similar theme. My producer Larry Rogers used to produce with Ricky Nelson, and he’s a really good producer. I just love him. He’s able to take what I have in my head and somehow get it to sound like that, with a lot of patience. When we first started doing this, I would go to his studio after dinner, on my off-hours, that’s always how I’ve done it, little bits at a time. It takes me about a year to finish an album. I go in and first select the songs and do the demos, and then there’s usually three or four tracking sessions which are a whole lot of fun. The most exciting thing for me is the first demo of a song. To really get to hear it and to hear the first tracking session when I hear what the musicians are going to do with it. That is really exciting to me to have it all come together. It can be a real frustrating part too when it doesn’t work. I’ve always done the writing in my head as I’m doing everything else. The actual recording process or performing is the only time that I’m gone from home. I literally jump on a plane to go to a show, I may or may not have eaten that day, and there’s nobody running resistance from me. I get onstage and I’m ready to perform! It’s very much just like fluffed right out of everyday life, there isn’t any insulation. I’ll go from doing the dishes to running down to the studio, and then I have to go pick up the kids or whatever. I don’t have a staff, or a system, or a routine. I think that is what keeps my music very real. At different times in my life people have told me that I needed to focus more on one thing or another, to be more organized, or get marketers. I’m sort of afraid if I did that, that I would lose what I have. My music is very honest because it’s my life; it’s very personal. It IS my life! (Laughs) I work it in, and try not to inconvenience the rest of the family. They hardly even know about it. When I do a show I try to get in and out in 24 hours, and so far it’s worked.

(CSC) 5. You had the chance to record several duets with Alan Jackson, what was that like and how did that opportunity come together for you?

(Marie Bellet)

I sang some songwriter demos early on when I was in Nashville, and I also did some jingles; basically all the sort of stuff you do to gain experience in the studio. I had recorded a few songs for my own kind of a singer’s demo that Jim Weatherly had written. He talked with me about maybe doing a production thing, and he also had Alan Jackson, who he was working with. So there was just a time when Alan Jackson and I sang a few duets for Jim Weatherly of his songs. It was really cool because Alan Jackson was kind of new to town, and I was just about to get married and move overseas. It was amazing. I came back three or four years later and he was huge! He was entertainer of the year. It was really fun. He was such a sweet, sweet humble guy. I just remember being amazed at how he wasn’t full of himself in any way.

(CSC) 6. You moved overseas shortly after being married, did you live in a certain area, or did you move around?

(Marie Bellet)

I lived in two different parts. I lived in Singapore for three years, and had two children there, and then we moved to Spain for a year, and I had another baby there. We came back to the United States after that. We moved because my husband worked for Hospital Corporation International. They were privatizing these huge hospitals in Asia. It was a very formative thing because when you get out of America, especially the west, you’re not hooked into the same kind of entertainment. In Singapore everything was very, very controlled. You didn’t have music playing constantly. There wasn’t television. I was aware how in America you’re constantly bombarded by some kind of entertainment. Your own thoughts are not your own. You find yourself humming along to the latest jingle that you heard. For three years I was in an extremely dull situation, and my husband was working all the time. I was just alone, and having my first children. I did get to sing at a few events. They love country music over there. They have these bands mostly from the Philippines. I remember singing at this huge conference singing the Tammy Wynette, “Stand by Your Man” song! (Laughs) It made me realize how universal the messages of country music are. You think when you are over in Asia, because everybody looks so different, and their lives are so different, that they would be different issues, but its not. It’s the same stuff. Everybody wants to be loved, everybody wants it to work, and everybody wants their kids to love. That is what so much of country music is about.

I think to un-plug from American culture for awhile you wind up processing everything. I got into this mindset of trying to figure things out, and I think that is probably where the writing came from. Coming back here was quite a shock, because when I came back here I already had three children. When I left, I was a yuppie and I didn’t have any children. I had a very stark experience of how Americans look at family, and it’s not necessarily that positive. To the point of when I was flying over I remember the stewardess acting like my baby was just nothing. She put a napkin on top of one of their heads. I think that experience really got me thinking once I was settled back here. I wanted to talk about it. When I sang country music in college, and after graduate school, I loved the communication part of it. I loved being able to really connect with an audience. I didn’t think I would ever write, and sometimes the songs just seemed kind of dumb. I love the story telling aspect of country music, and how a simple story could connect so much with what’s in the inner lives of so many people even though they look very different.

When I was first singing down in Houston, I remember singing at this place that was full of motorcycle gangs, it was a very rough place. My guardian angel was definitely watching over me because I was totally oblivious at that time. It didn’t even occur to me that that might have been dangerous. I’d go there in my cotton dresses and sing these country songs, and it would just be stone quiet at these rockin’ rowdy places. That real connecting, heart to heart with people who I had nothing in common with was a real thrill. I never thought that I would be the one actually writing.

When I first started writing it was because I had to talk to somebody, and I was just talking to myself pretty much. It was a series of coincidences that got these songs out to other people. I thought that I was just talking about myself pretty specifically. I got boxes and boxes of letters from all these people (mostly mothers and housewives) saying that you are writing about my life, and it’s amazing how much you know about my life. So I felt that the more honest you are, the more you are going to connect with people. I’ve always gone for pure honesty when I write. I have this song on this last album, “Nine More Months One More Time” because this last baby was quite a surprise. My youngest was six, and I’d been told it would be fatal if I had another baby, so it was very scary for me. That song is about all the emotions you go through with a surprise pregnancy. There are a lot of songs about the emotion on that record like husband wife fight songs, songs about getting older, whatever it is I’ve never felt like you need to sugarcoat it. Just be very honest with yourself. In a way where you really do try to make some sense out of it, so it’s not just whining. You try to put it in perspective. To me writing is almost like therapy. I’m trying to put my world into perspective. I’m trying to make the sense out of it. Questions like, “Why did god make it this way, or why did god make it so that we want people to love us perfectly, but they are very imperfect so were going to be hurt, hurt, hurt.” Those are the kind of things I think about while I am a housewife here. It’s been a whole lot of fun. I’ve sold about 40,000 albums just kind of by word of mouth. I write when it comes to me. Sometimes I really wish I could write, but I just can’t. Other times I just write, write, and write.

(CSC) 7. How do you keep your children from being subjected to today’s culture?

(Marie Bellet)

I think that you can’t keep it from them, but you can inoculate them as best you can. We talk at the dinner table a lot. Your family probably does too! I talk with my kids a lot about degradation. I try to think of what is the root of what you see on TV even, it’s degrading the role of the father. People’s humor is mean. I know I‘m going to sound like a church lady, but when you see degradation, the enemy is behind it; if it’s using other people for sex, if it’s about power, self-centeredness, or whatever the stuff is. I talk with them a lot about how to interpret what they see. How other people treat each other at school. You asked me before, what’s the most rewarding thing about motherhood, you know the little ones are cute, cute, cute, and I love that but I love my teenage boys. Everybody says it’s such a terrible time of life but they’re putting it all together and it’s really exciting to me. We are placed here in this piece of time; we’re in a real culture war. In fact, when I got to sing on FOX news, I told them that I was a culture warrior. I’m just saying to me, what’s obvious, about what works in relationships, and sacrificial love; there is no love without sacrifice. We live in a culture that tells people that smart people can figure out how to not suffer, and how to not sacrifice, and they get what they want. If you don’t sacrifice, you don’t get anything. There is a lot of misleading messages that have got people really barking up the wrong tree. My husband is a psychologist and a marriage counselor so he sees that stuff all the time.

(CSC) 8. What is the inspiration behind “A New Springtime?”

(Marie Bellet)

Well the Holy Father, John Paul II said that there would be a new springtime in the church. I wrote “A New Springtime” when I was really sick of myself and feeling sorry for myself; so it is about hope. This new album was made to be about hope; and the new baby that was coming. The song “A New Springtime” starts off with saying, “I’m paintin’ my walls, and cuttin’ my hair, movin’ my couch from here to there,” because you just want a renewal of some sort. I have a lot of songs about the way people go looking for renewal. The song also talks about the fact that this culture encourages people not to forgive. We freeze up and hold it all inside; rather than letting it go and moving past it. We need a new springtime to come and thaw our hearts out.

(CSC) 9. When do you find time to write songs, and where is your ideal place for songwriting?

(Marie Bellet)

When I think of writing, I think of standing in my kitchen or driving the car; that’s when I do it. For some reason I can really write when I’m driving. I’m from a big family, so I can tune people out. I’ll have a couple of lines that start going through my head, and then I get the rhythm to it, and then a few more lines. When I have a critical mess, I just keep doing it over, and over again to myself to see where it takes me. It is just something in my head, and that’s why it’s so great when I hear my songwriting demo of it because I’ve never heard it out loud before. I just write on whatever piece of paper I can find, and often I can’t find a piece of paper or a working pen. (Laughs) I guess it’s the cliché of songwriters writing on receipts and stuff that you find in the bottom of your purse. You never know when it’s going to hit you, and I find that when it does, you’ve got to go; that’s when I have to write it! It’s been a little bit harder to write since the new baby because it’s a little bit harder for me to keep track. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I had about four or five songs that I’ve started writing, and then I forgot them. (Laughs) I figure it it’s important, they will come back.

(CSC) 10. For people who have not heard your music before, how can you best describe your style of music to them?

(Marie Bellet)

I’ve always have a hard time describing my style; I used to just call them “housewife” songs. But a lot of people don’t want to identify themselves as housewives, (Laughs) It doesn’t sound very “glamorous.” A lot of people who are single really like my music too. My songs are really about how to love in real life. I guess you could call it “High Country” music for wives and mothers. I wouldn’t call it Christian music because it’s not glory and praise. You know there are all these conferences, and they always want glory and praise; that’s not what my music is. What I usually say about my music is they are just down to earth story songs, with a little bit of bluegrass. They are songs about being a wife and a mother, and the nobility of sacrificial love.

(CSC) 11. As a devout Christian/catholic how does that play into your music?

(Marie Bellet)

Well some of my songs are prayers I have to admit. For example, “Closet Space” says “I’m a woman who worries about closet space, and one day I’ll be dead.” It’s just about materialism. Another one is, “Secret Garden” it starts out going, (Sings) “I don’t want to be an angry woman with a brillo pad for a heart, all tangled up and rusted, just waitin’ to fall apart.” It talks about going to the Blessed Sacrament which is actually the secret garden. The song finishes by saying, (Sings) “I’ll meet you there in your secret garden, I know just where you will be, I had in mind a brighter Eden, but you I find in Gethsemane.” It’s about how you really find Christ in the suffering times. I’d say each album has two or three songs that are prayers like that. All of these songs are actually religious if you listen to them about four times. “Here I Am” is a morning offering, “Thy Will Be Done” speaks for itself, and “Without You I Can Do Nothing” is straight out of a prayer book.

When I was in Singapore I was terrified because I had no family there, I was trying to figure out how to be a mother, and my husband worked all the time. In the catholic prayer book there is a prayer that says, “Without you I can do nothing, with you I can do anything for the love of God I want to do all things to God the honor to me heaven.” I used to say that to myself over and over again. That’s very religious to me. “Late Have I Loved You” is an examination of conscience. “Saturday Afternoon” is about a girl going back to confession; she wants rejuvenation. So she goes to the mall, and she thinks with the right hair cut and the right outfit that people will want her and she’ll be loveable. She ends up getting a bad hair cut, and she’s so humiliated. With that particular song I was amazed at what the musicians could do with it. In the song she kneels down in church and she hears Christ say, (Sings) “If you have been ridiculed I have called your name, come and lay your burden down I will ease your pain. You are empty I can fill you, I can fill your soul, I can make you beautiful, I can make you whole.” I needed it to sound like grace descending, and the keyboard player did it!

I’ve actually sent “As You Wish” to a few public leaders who have talked publicly about that prayer, “The Litany of Humility.” The song goes, (Sings) “He said, I thirst, I said me first, he said come follow, I said tomorrow, he said as you wish.” Then there is this weird part where it goes, (Sings) “From the fear of seeming awe deliver me, from the fear of growing old deliver me, from the fear of being forgotten deliver me.” It’s like a paraphrasing; so I wove that into the song. “It Was His Delight to Walk Among Men” is a song about how trying to believe that god loves you. I was reading this scripture from Sirach, and it said, “It was his delight to walk among the sons of men.” I thought it was odd because usually you think of god just tolerating us, but it said that it was his delight; he’s delighted by us! That song is about looking at the people around you, and trying to really comprehend that god is delighted with us.

In America, everybody always wants to be above average, but god made the average, so he must love it! (Laughs) There are a lot of meditations in the songs if you’re looking for them, but if you’re not, then it just kind of sounds nice. The people who really like my music are people who like to listen to words. Some people listen to the music; some people listen to the words. With the last two albums, I tried to make them very fun to listen to if you’re not a word person. There are a lot of different styles on those albums. “Closet Space” has this really fun Caribbean beat on it. I thought there are some things you can talk about that has to make it fun. If you talk about it really serious, I wouldn’t want to listen to them either. There’s another really fun song called, “You Can Call Her (But she won’t pick up the phone).” It’s about people and how they screen their calls. I’m not saying I don’t because we all do, but it can get to a point where people have to be so in control that they don’t let life come and get them. It’s a spiritual issue I think. It’s something in our culture that we really are told. “If you’re smart, you’ve got it all under control.” The problem with that is you can control all the best parts of your life away; and that is a real lesson of being a mother. That song has kind of a boss nova beat to it. (Sings) “You can call her, but she won’t pick up, she’ll just let it ring on through, listen to the message and decide if she’ll get back to you, cuz’ you know she’s got her calendar, and lots she got to do, you can call her, but she won’t pick up she’ll just let it ring on through.”

There is another one called, “Are You Ready Freddy,” it’s about making up with your husband. (Laughs) When I go and I do concerts, they have a little talking along with singing. I’m asking people to think about how they do their life; asking them to ask themselves, “Do I forgive, do I love, am I blowing my kids off, do I respect my husband?” all those sort of things pretty much. It’s a unique thing because it’s not pure entertainment, but it’s also not like a talk, and it’s certainly not glory and praise; it’s just a universal connection with the audience. A lot of men enjoy my music as well. They tell me that they understand how their wives are feeling after hearing those songs. My song, “Don’t You Think I Count” is a husband wife fight song; it’s about “Don’t you think I count all the times you miss dinner, and all of that.” “One Heroic Moment” is about all the little things in a man’s life like when he actually comes home instead of going out with the guys, or turning the TV off to listen to what people are saying. It’s about teaching people, and maybe helping them to see things that are already pretty obvious. I’ve had so many women say to me that this song helped them. It gave them a reason to forgive their husbands. Sometimes you need a reason because the culture is telling you only an idiot would forgive someone.

(CSC) 12. Would you ever consider recording an album of Gospel classics?

(Marie Bellet)

There are some that I’ve heard Alison Krauss kind of do, and I love her style. There’s one Nickel Creek does too. I don’t know a whole lot of gospel classics, but if they were songs that I liked, I would consider it. I love harmony, that’s one thing that I always used to sing in choirs. I would love to get out and sing harmony. I love those trio records that Dolly Parton, Emmylou, and Linda Ronstadt did a few years back. I just love Dolly’s singing; she just seems very real, I know she puts up this big persona, but I saw her once at an awards show and it really struck me. It was being recorded at four in the afternoon, and when you see those things on TV they look real glitzy, and appear to be at nighttime; but it was so dead. There was no chemistry; there wasn’t any electricity in the air whatsoever. Dolly Parton came out, and she was playing to the camera, and I was so impressed by that because I thought, “That is a real entertainer.” She wasn’t taking from the audience, she was completely giving. It’s always something I’ve thought about when I see other entertainers because some people are takers, and some people are givers. I always try to be a giver, I go and I sing for a lot of these women who are so glad they got out of the house, because going to the show is their one privilege; they are so overwhelmed with daily life. Women work like dogs all the time. (Laughs) Whether they are working at home, or in the working world, or both, it’s tough! I’ll tell my audience, “I know that it took a whole lot to get out of the house tonight, so let’s whoop it up while we can!” You can’t tell when you look at an audience who’s really getting it and who isn’t, because half the time the person who looks at you who you think is just hating you, is actually trying not to cry. I find that when I sing, people just cry, cry, cry. When I get in front of people, I just love them. I really feel what we have in common. For women in particular, they tend to take each other apart. It’s a huge release for me. They come up to me and tell me their life stories, and there is a lot of suffering out there; more than you think. There are a lot of really good heroic people out there too. When they tell me their stories, it just blows me away. I come back home, the kids all look so cute, and it really helps a lot when you just go away just for a day, and then you see them again.  

(CSC) 13. Lastly, what are some projects that you hope to conquer in 2008/2009?

(Marie Bellet)

I’ve got a bunch of songs in my head that are still over my head. I want to finish writing those. At some point I’d like to do an album called, “The Private Collection.” I have a lot of songs that are very soft and serious songs. I always feel like you don’t want to put too many of those on one album, but you have a ton of those left over. Those are the ones that I really like to tell you the truth. People are always telling me that I need to do a lullaby album. I can only write what comes to me to write. I don’t want to contrive anything because what’s always worked for me is being very honest. I’m afraid that if I try to write something in particular, it might not be what I want. If something’s good, that’s when I have to write it. I know some people will say that they always write in front of the Blessed Sacrament, but to me this is my altar, here is my family life. This is where I write, just in the midst of it. I’ve never really had the luxury of being able to go away. I’ve got some ideas for some songs for the next album. My nineteen year old son is in the military now, and he’s considering whether or not to leave West Point. I want to write a song called, “It’s Not the Clothes That Make the Man,” but I don’t know what to say just yet. It’s over my head still. My songs start out as something I want to express, but it takes me awhile to figure out what it actually is. I think that the next album will be called, “Carry On.” I know so many people who have to carry on in spite of terrible sufferings, and that’s the real mark of the man. We’re supposed to carry faith, hope, and love to other people. It has a negative and a positive feel that, “Yes you carry your cross, you carry your burden, but you bring that to other people too.” When I wrote “Carry On,” I was thinking about being in an airport gate, all the red-eyes have been canceled; and just looking around at all the people who take the red-eyes. There are people who are driven along because there’s something they love, and they’ve got to get there. We’re all at the mercy of all these things and we have no control over it. This last album “A New Springtime,” was literally finished the week before the baby was born. I am not sure what is next, but I look forward to whatever life will bring along to me!