Who's in love with Mary Brown? Chris Kirby, and he wrote a song about it
Kirby keeps busy in Nova Scotia writing music and producing others
Newfoundland's own Chris Kirby has cooked up a tasty jam on his latest record with a song about fried chicken — more specifically, Mary Brown's.
"I wrote it in Nashville with a friend of mine from Cape Breton, Keith Mullins, and Gordie Sampson and Gordie's daughter. It was just fun. We were just messing around writing a song about Mary Brown's and about a woman named Mary Brown," Kirby told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show.
"It was basically a tongue-in-cheek sort of a love song to a woman named Mary Brown with a lot of parallels to chicken."
The Mary Brown's franchise contacted Kirby after hearing the song, not with a cease and desist, but with free Big Mary sandwiches.
Kirby isn't alone in showing his love for the N.L.-based fast-food restaurant. Some have taken to making crafts with the franchise's logo.
A different coastal community
Although Kirby currently calls Nova Scotia home, his new album What Goes Around, his first studio album in seven years, brought him back to Newfoundland to lay the tracks on home soil and to release the album at Fred's Records in St. John's. Returning to what he called his true roots, Kirby recorded the album in a studio owned by his brother on the same plot of land where their grandfather once owned a store.
Kirby moved to Lawrencetown Beach — roughly 25 kilometres east of Halifax — with his wife in 2017 after she took a job in her career field of marine biology.
The move made sense for him too, he said, as he had been working a lot with musicians based in Nova Scotia.
Since making the move, Kirby has been working more, too, by continuing to write for himself, and collaborating with and produce other musicians. He also gets the chance to put Newfoundland-based artists in contact with musicians and groups in Nova Scotia, helping to foster new musical relationships.
He recently co-wrote and produced an album by Newfoundland duo Quote the Raven.
"They've been making a lot of waves across Atlantic Canada and beyond," Kirby said. "I'm going to make a new record with them coming up this year. I'm actually working with them on some singles when I get home."
The What Goes Around album release show is 8 p.m. on Sunday at the Jag Hotel in St. John's.
With files from The St. John's Morning Show