Do you prefer writing your own material or covering other people's songs?

On my grown up recordings, I do a mix of my own songs and songs by others, but all of my lullaby songs were written by others.  I feel that there are so many wonderful songs out there and that my own songs have to stand beside them. I adore singing songs written by others but it's a thrill to record my own as well. I guess the truth is that I probably prefer singing songs written by others. 

How do you go about interpreting a song? I'm sure it's harder than it looks.

I mostly focus on who I am singing to and the emotion of the song. After that, I just try to get out of the way of the song and let it sing itself. I am not a singer who uses a lot of ornamentation because I think that is one of the best ways to let the simple beauty of each song shine through. 

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope I will still be singing and teaching. I have been teaching classes in independent marketing, managing stage fright and performance for about 10 years now and it is a very rewarding thing to do. Teaching inspires me to go back into my world and do things even better.  

Who do you like to listen to? 

I am a big fan of contemporary singer songwriters like Tom Kimmel, Pierce Pettis, David Wilcox, Sloan Wainwright, Darden Smith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Craig Carothers, Jeff Black, Kim Richey, Patty Griffin and Lucinda Williams.

What question do you wish interviewers would ask that they never do?

Now THAT's a great question, but I was actually just thinking that these were a great batch of questions. You have asked about the things that matter most to me - picking the songs, writing the songs and interpreting the songs. I couldn't ask for more! 

For more information about Mae Robertson, check out her Web page.