Mary Lee Family Band

Radiant centrepiece of the group is Mary Lee Saldanha. She is headstrong and free-spirited and has a fresh perspective on original country music. She was born and raised in Brazil, but has lived in Berlin for years. The colourful and exuberantly tattooed singer draws inspiration for her songs from the legacies of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, artists who provided the big bang for country music in the 1920s.

Mary Lee is accompanied by her husband Mauro Montezuma on drums, her son Patrick Saldanha on double bass, Irish-born star violinist Sorcha Thompson and the latest addition in the family is a special Pirate they adopted, Daren Stieglitz on Mandolin. Together they provide an infectious blend of authentic honky tonk, Irish folk and bluegrass. Mary Lee is a born entertainer who wants only one thing: to entertain her audience. And whether that's five or five hundred people doesn't matter to her. Music is her passion and she wants to share that passion with whoever will hear it.

In Brazil about fifteen years ago, she made a name for herself with her then B-Side Brothers, a band with whom she not only toured her homeland but also toured European stages. That collaboration in 2012 resulted in Meet Mary Lee, a record that earned her the name Loretta Lynn of Brazil. The 2016 second album Fighting Demons is a personal document , in which the singer and songwriter candidly recounts her struggle with her inner demons. The album won recognition as the best country album of the year in Brazil.


"Be Truth" is Mary Lee’s third album, but her first with the "Family Band." It was recorded in 2024 at "The Family House" by Daren Stieglitz, who also played six instruments on the album and worked on the production alongside Mary Lee. The album features 11 songs, 10 of them written by Mary Lee. As she says, “The truth of life that we all look for is right in front of our eyes; it’s the beauty of living THE TRUTH, being true to yourself, and consequently to the world around you. We are all connected; we are all the same. Every action by one human being affects the whole world. So be kind first to yourself, then you can be kind to everything else. It’s magical how miracles start happening when you choose the truth."