“If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s pretentiousness,” local singer-songwriter Mandi Rae said. “Nobody has the right to be pretentious.”

Back in Leeds after a six-state concert tour, singer-songwriter Mandi Rae has spent the past two days playing in the snow with her two daughters and offering hospitality to motorists left stranded by icy road conditions.

“It’s snowing, and I’m making chili,” she said Tuesday afternoon.  “And I have an excuse to wear all of the snow gear that I own right this minute.”

The inclement weather hasn’t dampened her enthusiasm for the local shows she has scheduled the remainder of the week, which she describes as “a Birmingham teaser tour for the new record, as we are playing mostly new stuff. After that, I’m pulling back for a while on playing live while I work on the record.”

The teaser tour includes a show at Matthew’s Bar & Grill on Friday, followed by a show Saturday at The Nick Rocks.  More details are available at www.mandiraemusic.net.

An intellectual who is as unpretentious as her music, Mandi Rae has performed at venues across the country for most of the past decade and has released several independently produced albums, including her latest, the 13-track Tales of Woe and Wonder.  Guitar in hand, she explained how she writes her songs and what influences her to make music.

Her beginnings as a guitarist:  “When I was 13 or 14, my grandfather got me a couple of lessons.  At the time I was only here to visit twice a year, on Christmas or Easter break, so it wouldn’t have done anything for me other than introduce me to an instrument.  I always sang, and I guess my grandfather felt the need to give me something to accompany it.  I learned a song in my first lesson.  I wish I could remember the name of the man who gave it to me.”

Returning to it:  “I didn’t pick a guitar back up until I was 16 or 17, when I ordered a classical guitar from eBay.  My boyfriend and his friends played guitar, and I learned to play on that little bitty classical guitar.  I taught myself from the Internet, so I don’t know theory very well at all.  I come up with weird chord progressions, but if I were to take lessons or take theory even more, I don’t think I’d write like I do.”

The Mandi Rae songwriting method:  “I vomit a song out, as much as I hate to use that word.  I expel it in one sitting.  Little things will evolve, but the song comes out as a whole.  Everybody’s got their own way, but if I write half a song, I won’t go back and finish it.”

Writing a song:  “I work from ideas.  I usually don’t have a line, more of an idea that I’ve been tossing around.  Inspiration chooses you, though.  I couldn’t sit down with the intent of writing a song.  It just wouldn’t happen, and it’s very aggravating when it doesn’t.  When it does, there’s nothing better.”

An example:  “I was in the swing playing a chord progression I’d had for seven years.  Just the music, no lyrics.  And it just happened.  I wrote the lyrics right there.”  The song became Good Times, the first track on Tales of Woe and Wonder.  “Ever since I had my two girls, I’ve wanted so badly to write a song about children, a stop-and-smell-the-roses kind of thing.  The best way I know how to explain something is in a song.”

Her favorite song from her own catalog: Mandi Rae has written about 40 songs, “although I haven’t actually sat down and counted.  I suppose my first favorite is ‘Gettaway.’  It’s special to me because it seems to be special to so many people. My second has to be one of my newer ones called ‘On My Mind.’  That one, because I wrote it when you truly did, and still do, have a whole lot weighing heavily on me. So I play it with a lot of passion.”

Her sound:  “Because I play acoustic guitar and have a fairly noticeable twang in my voice, I get labeled country, but I’m a lot more rock and roll than people assume.”  She names Hank Williams, Roger Miller, Tom T. Hall, Pink Floyd, Bill Withers and Neil Young as influences.

Other than music:  “I read a ton. If it’s not novels, then it is publications like Scientific American. The last book I read was actually Atlas Shrugged. I felt I needed to understand what it was about when people mentioned it in conversation. I believe that any way to expand your mind helps songwriting or any artistic venture for that matter. Every artist should have a second or third hobby. For instance, even cooking helps me in that way. It’s a great interest of mine.”

How she describes herself:  “Someone called me ‘salt of the earth’ the other day.  I liked that.  I like to think I’m down-to-earth and able to relate to anybody.”

Her biggest pet peeve:  “Pretentiousness.  If there’s one thing I can’t stand in a person, it’s pretentiousness.  Nobody has the right to be pretentious, and I’m really good at calling out people who are.  It’s kind of a pastime for me.”

Her favorite indulgence:  “The Walking Dead.  And it is an indulgence.  There’s no reason to be that hooked on a TV show, but I am.”