She tells you she performs “filk” music, and you ask, “You mean folk?”

Mary Crowell says that’s actually how filk music got its name. It was a misprint of “folk” that stuck more than 50 years ago.

But although it’s been around since the 1950s, filk cannot be considered mainstream.

“About 1,500 people usually go to the conferences—from the U.S., Great Britain and Canada—people who write music and science fiction. It’s fantasy, it tells a story rather than To-40 ‘Oh, I love you, baby’ songs. It’s very lyrical.”

Crowell, who moved to Athens five years ago with her pediatrician husband, Wesley, and their young son, Simon, has won numerous awards in the genre.

She was nominated for a Pegasus Award in the category of Best Performer in 2003, and was nominated for that same award again in 2004 and 2005. Her song, “When I Grow Up” was nominated for a Pegasus Award in the category Best Comic Book Song that year. In 2006 she was nominated yet again for a Pegasus award in the category Best Writer/ Composer. Her song, “Legolas” was nominated in the category Best Torch Song.

“It started in the 1950s when people would go to science fiction conventions and someone would grab a guitar and parody lyrics,” she said. “In the 1990s you saw a lot more original music being written.”

Music in her blood

Crowell comes by her musical composition skills naturally.

“My grandmother used to play for the silent movies at the old Gem Theatre in Connecticut,” she said.

But as well as blood-borne talent, there were also countless hours of study and practice. Crowell has a B.A. in piano performance from Huntingdon College, M.M. in musicology from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and a D.M.A. in music composition—also from the University of Alabama.

Crowell recently performed with a new musical partner, Teresa Powell, in their duo, Birds of a Feather, on the Athens square during a recent Spirit of Athens open house.

Crowell, who has taught piano and composition for 19 years, is a Florence native and a graduate of Brooks High School. Her husband, Wesley, is a Decatur native who practices with Central Pediatrics. Simon, 8, is a third grader at Julian Newman Elementary.