Rhymes With “Very”: One-time Bendite Mare Wakefield gives us a lesson in pronunciation and American

Mare’s got peeps in Bend. We'd like to spend a little time here discussing singer/songwriter Mare Wakefield and why you insist on mispronouncing her name. While on paper, it looks like Wakefield's first name should rhyme with "hair" or "bear," but in fact when said aloud, her name is the world that belongs in the following blanks: Peter, Paul and _________ or the Virgin _________, or perhaps ________ Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Some
 
Central Oregonians, might however, not have been caught off guard by the intentionally quirky and seemingly erroneous spelling of the Nashville-based artist's name. Those who've been here for a few decades (don't all raise your hands at once) might remember Wakefield as part of the band Sister Southpaw, a Bend-based troupe from the early 1990s. Or perhaps more recently, you might remember her set at the Silver Moon Brewing Co. last fall, a venue she's returning to on Wednesday during a grueling cross-country tour.

Talkin’ bout freedom!When Richie Havens called my cell phone earlier this month, I was expecting to hear a great, booming voice reminiscent of the musician's singing style, one that grabs the listener's inner ear and demands attention. Instead, I found myself straining to hear a soft-spoken man. At one point I had to turn up the volume on my phone, causing me to miss the beginning of his answer to the question: How do you go about writing songs?
 
" … a different way every time, whether I'm riding the bus or walking - wherever I am," Havens said. "First, the song's title pops into my brain, and the title suggests whether it's a song or a title for a whole album. So they come and I write them down. I take the title … and before long the first thing happens: I hear a melody and start to figure out how that's happening. Then, I play a couple of chords and the first line comes. From that moment on I hear the song being sung, as if by someone else."