When I met MaRynn Taylor at CMT’s Next Women of Country 2023, I knew I would love her music because I immediately loved her personality. And while I covered her at CRS and her music in my Christmas blog, I had not done a full feature on the songstress. When I learned her debut EP, Get To Know Me was being released at the end of May, I knew it was high time that I get to know her.
MaRynn Taylor grew up in Rockford, Michigan listening to country music, but no one in her family was particularly musical. However, she was obsessed with artists like Hannah Montana, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift.
“I had their CDs and became super nerdy about it, like reading the credits and reading lyric by lyric and who played on what,” she recalled.
When Taylor was young, she auditioned for “Cherry Idol” at the Traverse City National Cherry Festival in Michigan. The first time she tried out she got told “no” early on, but three years later, when she was 15, she won the competition. Winning this competition gave the teen the courage she needed to move to Nashville and pursue her dreams.
“If I'm being completely honest, my main goal in moving to Nashville was to make friends. I was kind of a weird girl who liked country music because when I was in high school, country wasn't cool. And it was like very weird if you liked it. So, I was like, ‘I want to make friends who like country music.’ When I moved here, I only wanted to find those people who liked songwriting,” she shared.
Taylor is now signed with Black River Entertainment (BRE), but how she got there was serendipitous. She recounted, “I went to CMA Fest and spent the whole day going to the stages and walking around. It was towards the end of the day, and I was sitting on the steps of the Country Music Hall of Fame when I got handed a fan. The fan had an advertisement, ‘60 Second Spotlight.’ At the time, Black River was doing a thing where anybody could go and sing 60 seconds of whatever for them for free because otherwise, artists were having to pay to play on Broadway.”
When Taylor went to see what it was all about, they denied her because she wasn’t 18 years old, and they were about to shut down for the night. Since she was 5 days shy of her 18th birthday, she begged them to let her sing. They got BRE president Gordan Kerry and VP Doug Johnson to listen in and they were so impressed with her strong and beautiful voice that they invited her to their company’s suite at Nissan Stadium to see the evening festivities.
She confessed, “It was a God thing for sure. There were so many ways that things could have gone wrong that day for me not to see them, but God broke down all those barriers for me to get in there and sing for them.”
After taking her under their wing, BRE sent Taylor to their version of summer music camp where she learned to write songs and record music.
She stated, “I tried to make myself a sponge to all of it. I tried to just soak up every moment, but also just learn as much as I could. There were a lot of things about the music industry that I didn't know were a thing. I was just a fan of country music and the music part of it.”
The first song Taylor put out was in 2020, “Dads and Daughters.” The song struck a note with many and blew up on TikTok. It remains a favorite of her and her fans.
In 2022, Taylor released the relatable, “Every Single Summer” a song that surmises what her summers were like growing up in small-town Michigan.
On June 23, 2023, Taylor made her Opry debut, and a few weeks later she returned to the coveted stage for a second time. One of the songs she sang was her very personal “01” an ode that is a heartfelt apology to her younger self and a reminder for today to tap into the fearlessness, knowingness, freedom, and open heart of her youth.
Later she released the upbeat dance tune, “Shakin’ In My Boots,” a song that affirms that indescribable feeling of being in love and the undeniable happiness that comes along with it.
Last fall, Taylor took the stage during the 2023 Dance Party to End Alzheimer’s. Moved by a personal connection, MaRynn shared her most emotional release to date, "i love you, remember," inspired by her grandparents.
Also, in 2023 Taylor released the flirty “Make You Mine,” a song about getting a guy to commit without coming across as controlling.
Now Taylor has released a 5-song EP, Get to Know Me, which provides a glimpse into the 23-year-old’s world with each track offering insight into her inner thoughts and feelings. The first sneak peek we had to her new music was in March when she let us in on a secret relationship with her song “Smal Town Spinnin’”.
Last month, the storyteller released the 2nd song from the EP, “How It’s Gonna Go.” The song was written by a confident person who knows what they want and will expect nothing less if you are going to have their heart.
Now that the entire EP is out, you get to hear the rest of her meaningful, soul-baring, songs. She told me, “I wanted ‘Running Away With You’ to be a little bit of like, Keith Urban, the Golden Era. It’s about getting into a relationship that is so good, you can’t slow it down.”
“We Could Be In Love” is basically like a summer fling. It’s so good and then it ends. There are a lot of what-ifs that never get answered.
The most vulnerable song on the EP is the title track “Get To Know Me” as in “You don’t get to know me.” It’s based on a real-life situation. And while it may be a bit scary to be so honest with your lyrics, artists who do so are often the most popular. “When I write a song that others can relate to, it makes me feel less alone,” Taylor admitted.
Taylor knows she writes mostly for other girls. She advised, “I'm really proud of this collection of music, and I just hope that it shows my heart and hopefully shows the light that I'm trying to give off.”
Most recently, Dylan Schneider announced that MaRynn Taylor is slated to join him as direct support on his "Bad Decisions" Tour. She is eager to get on the road and perform fan favorites along with tracks from her forthcoming EP, Get To Know Me. She will also play the Dr. Pepper AMP Stage on June 7th at CMA Fest.
You can follow MaRynn Taylor on her website, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and all streaming platforms.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and X.
Get To Know Me EP
"Running Away With You" - Written by MaRynn Taylor, Josh Kerr, and Barry Dean
"Small Town Spinnin'" - Written by MaRynn Taylor, Josh Kerr, and Erin Kinsey
"Get To Know Me" - Written by MaRynn Taylor, McCall Chapin, and Robyn Dell’Unto
"We Could Be In Love Right Now" - Written by MaRynn Taylor, Josh Kerr, and Jason Earley
"How It's Gonna Go" - Written by MaRynn Taylor, Josh Kerr, and Parker Welling