At age 22, country singer Mary Sarah is well on the way to becoming one of country music’s brightest stars. The Oklahoma native started performing at age eight, and spent her childhood singing at radio stations, regional Opry theaters, and other events.
In 2011, The Oak Ridge Boys‘ Joe Bonsall came across a video of Mary Sarah singing, and invited her to come sing during one of their shows. That performance helped Mary Sarah gain further recognition in the country music community.
Many of country music’s leading legends stepped up to help Mary Sarah with her 2014 album, Bridges. The album featured duets between Mary Sarah and major country music stars, including Merle Haggard and Tanya Tucker. She also joined songwriter Neil Sedaka on the song “Where the Boys Are,” which is one of her favorite pieces to cover.
It was “Where the Boys Are” that Mary Sarah sang for her blind audition on The Voice, which aired in February 2016. Her performance earned her a four-chair turn, and she ended up choosing Blake Shelton as her coach.
Mary Sarah managed to make it to the semifinals on her season of The Voice, and placed within the top six. Since then, she has remained busy by sharing covers and original material on her YouTube channel, including a cover of Miranda Lambert‘s “Tin Man.”
Released on April 3, “Tin Man” is the third single off of Miranda’s critically-acclaimed album The Weight of These Wings. The emotional tune serves as a conversation between Miranda and the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, as she explains to him all of the reasons why he would never want a heart.
Since its release, many country artists and fans have offered their own takes on “Tin Man.” But we’ve seen few that truly capture its heart-wrenching nature as well as Mary Sarah.
Opting to take the unplugged approach, Mary Sarah performed her cover of “Tin Man” with nothing but her acoustic guitar to back her up. This is the same way that Miranda will perform “Tin Man” from time to time, just as she did during the 2017 ACM Awards.
Singing with a soft sweetness, Mary Sarah perfectly captured the broken nature of “Tin Man” in her performance of the song. She didn’t bother trying to over sing it, because she didn’t need to. The power of her performance all rested within the emotion she poured into each word.
Tune in below to watch Mary Sarah’s touching performance of “Tin Man.” We think this is one cover that Miranda would give her seal of approval to, don’t you?