Editor’s Note: This is the first in a potential series of reviews, commentaries and columns from Athens resident, veteran and author John William Davis.

Music sets our atmosphere. We luxuriate in smoky clubs or quiet lounges where the saxophone and bassoon are cool, the singer magic and smooth. Our mind pictures rainy street ballads masterfully sung to a darkened piano, the keys carrying us along until we cry, smile or forget. Or maybe we like clever, witty tales of mystery, sung over a keyboard to an audience of clever people, whose imagination is sparkled?

Mary Crowell is an artist who can do all of this. Singer, composer and player of all known instruments, I caught one of her unforgettable shows recently and was charmed.

I mean that literally.

Unlike any singer I’ve ever heard, she embodies whimsical stories that she writes herself, evokes sad and inspiring tales, and joyously celebrates vampy, jumpy or just singable songs that enrapture her audience. She’s a pantheon of talent, and her CDs have kept many people happy. From “Courting my Muse” to “Acolytes of the Machine,” you’ll find yourself wanting more.

And she will deliver.

Mary draws inspiration from myriad sources. Once, her young son Simon was afraid to be alone after a scary trip to Huntsville Botanical Garden’s Scarecrow Walk. He begged her not to leave him at bedtime with, “Get down, Mama, and sleep your eyes down.” This became her deathless “Get down, Mama.” And call me a film noir fan, but who can resist “Good Man Go Bad,” which says:

It’s a fine thing to cheer and applaud them.

They’re upholding the good way — be glad!

But I find that the view is much better,

When I get to see a good man go bad.

It seems heroes get tempted but rarely do fall.

That’s nice for the damsel but no fun at all

For the women whose jobs are to lead men astray

Circe, Delilah, Morgan Le Fey.

I’m really, really a fan of “City of Doors.” So much so, I can only wish you’d heard it because as well-crafted piano music, it moves, and as ballad, it makes you wonder, giving no clues:

Come into the City of Doors, of Doors.

Saints rubbin’ shoulders with the lowest of whores.

They can’t leave by the way they came in.

If you crack a door open who knows where you’ll be?

With your best friend or your worst enemy?

Sooner or later you may find your Connect.

It’s in the place that you least expect, so

Come in. Come in!

Come into the City of Doors, of Doors.

Dark angels winkin’ while the beggars implore.

They can’t leave by the way they came in.

“Skydiving Naked” catches your attention; it’s snappy, especially when she quips, “What a way to go!” We’re along for the weird, exhilarating ride.

Oh, and “Oh Milo” lets us know what happens to bad boys — who are just “fresh meat.” Is this ’40s era lounge melody speaking to you? Or maybe you’re into dark ambition and vanity? “The Devil of Stories” comes to mind, a cautionary tale of wonder which you’ll find yourself singing when it’s over.

Can you imagine that? Great, clever, intriguing stories which you’ll sing long after they are over. Just like the best Broadway plays, where you can never forget a song, you’ll find yourself wondering how “Shifty Screavy” became a part of your mental lexicon.

Just like her musical romp called “Legolas!” Who is this guy? The story is mysterious, and she’s in lust for him. Really? Can you figure it out as the piano trolls lively between verses? What I like is so many stories are open-ended. You find yourself enjoying the song, then the story, then thinking about the story. What more can you ask — oh yes, don’t forget, you then continue singing these songs in your head forever.

They aren’t deliberately naughty, clever or wise — or are they? More mysterious and mythological is “Doctrine of Ethos,” ruminating on where music came from.

“The music got inside your head and there it stayed” wonders how magicians of ages past brought music about. What magic is inside each of Mary’s songs!

“You have to listen, the song makes you whole; the universe is singing in your favorite mode,” is but one verse from again, one of the best CDs I own.

Mary is tireless in creating wonderful music. Her newest one will make you joyful, intrigued and happy. Who could want for more? Her Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour was released in 2017. It is available to buy as a physical album or for download on bandcamp.

A “bluesy, jazzy” new album, I wish I could get one for every listener. It will have what you want, or as Mary says better in song, “A musician can shape the way you wanted.”

North Alabama has done it again. We should be proud, Mary.

— John William Davis is a retired U.S. Army counterintelligence officer, civil servant and linguist. He was commissioned from Washington University in St. Louis in 1975. He entered counterintelligence and served some 37 years. A linguist, Mr. Davis learned foreign languages in each country in which he served. His published works include “Rainy Street Stories: Reflections on Secret Wars, Terrorism and Espionage” and “Around the Corner: Reflections on American Wars, Violence, Terrorism and Hope.”