Exclusive Premiere of Celeste Marie Wilson's "Marie" July 17

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Hailing from Montgomery, Texas, Celeste Marie Wilson is proof that the Lone Star State is never short on rising talent. Her musical style is a refreshing blend of country, pop, red dirt and Americana, inspired by legends like Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris. Wilson is set to release her latest single, “Marie,” an intricate family tale set to music on Friday, July 17th. Center Stage Magazine is proud to premiere this beautiful love song infused with everything Texas. I had a chance to speak with Celeste Marie Wilson to get her take on the release and find out more about the artist herself. 

The minute I heard Wilson’s voice on the other end of the phone, I knew this was going to be a great interview. She was bubbly, with a positive energy that allowed me to drop my shoulders and relax. Someone I just knew I could have coffee with and we could talk for hours, but time was tight so we dove right in. I told her I loved the story behind the song and in my mind I knew her musical idols would agree, it’s definitely uniquely Texas. She replied, “There’s all this discourse about country music and how it should be about real people in the country, so I thought, ‘Why don’t we just do that then?’”

Although Wilson currently calls Montgomery, Texas home, she spent most of her formative years in Humble, Texas, a suburb of the Houston metropolitan area that became an oil boom town in the early 1900s. Her father works in the oil industry as an accountant and her great grandparents, the main characters in the new single, were a young rodeo circuit rider and a landowner’s only daughter who was a poet, a piano teacher, and had her head full of dreams of the Grand Ole Opry. Star-crossed? Perhaps, but the two eloped and built a life story that can now be remembered forever in song.

The romantic yarn of Wilson’s great grandparents has been passed down through her mother’s side of the family for years. “Marie” was her great grandmother’s name and it’s also the reason Wilson’s own middle name is Marie. She explained to me that when she began her musical career, she wanted to recognize both sides of her family, so she chose to include her middle name in her professional name, along with her father’s surname of Wilson. “I was able to honor my father’s side and my mother’s side.” 

In addition to the release of “Marie,” Wilson’s debut album is set to launch in late August of 2026 and is titled Southern American Princess. Originally thought to be titled Southern American Poet, Wilson began to assess who she was as an entire person and made the change. She elaborated, “I started thinking of me as a whole, not just one part of me. I grew up in an oil family, rode horses all my life, and lived in the deep south, that’s kind of like being a Southern American Princess. Being a girl in the south is complicated sometimes.” 

She continued, “On the album, no two things sound the same. We go from bars in ‘Jesus, Tequila and Whiskey’ to the story of my great grandparents with ‘Marie.’ There’s a song about corruption in the oil industry with ‘Black Gold.’” A previous single, an uproarious piano-driven tune called “What Else Could I Need” is also included on the full project.

A go-getter who spends a lot of time in her car commuting from Texas to Nashville, Wilson knew exactly what she wanted her debut album to be and didn’t waste a moment’s time when she arrived in Music City to record. The bulk of the tracks were done in Nashville and they were all finished in about ten hours, spread out over two days. While that sounds like quite a feat for a debut ten-track record, Wilson, along with her producer Jim Reilley and Nashville session musicians, came together and brought the project to completion with only two to three takes per song.

To highlight just how quickly everything happened, Wilson shared a bit about day one in the studio. “After a couple hours on the first day, my mom and my boyfriend left the studio to grab lunch for all of us. They went just down the street to a fried chicken place, Joyland, where they have gluten-free food. I have celiac disease and never eat anything fried, so I was excited for fried chicken. By the time they got back with the food, we had recorded all of the other songs. We just locked in. It was great to have everything done. We also recorded a cover that most likely will be released later this year. All I had to do then was overdub the vocals the next day and make sure everything was as clean as I wanted it to be, then I was all ready to go.” Wilson emphasized she’s always trying to maximize her time and money, while crediting her dad for teaching her to do that. 

To add to that life lesson in managing time and money, she also inadvertently offered some solid advice to young artists. “It’s a singles market now. Why record just one single, rather than a bunch of songs if it costs the same?” In other words, record ‘em if you got ‘em.

That brief studio trip to Nashville also resulted in some extra time to hit some tourist spots. Wilson said, “I went to the Gibson Garage and the Country Music Hall of Fame, where they had a Dolly Parton exhibit, I think it was a temporary kind of thing. Prior to all of this, my artist rep had asked me to choose three main colors. I chose sugary colors, pink, yellow, and blue. At the Dolly Parton exhibit, right at the front, there were these costumes and her three colors were pink, yellow, and blue. I just thought it was the funniest thing.” A sign of something? I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see.

As stated above, Dolly Parton is one of Wilson’s biggest influences, and I was able to hear why. Wilson revealed, “I love Dolly Parton. My dream, at the end of all of this, is to be able to write songs, put albums out, write children’s books, give back to the community, make sure we keep our literacy rates up and make sure people can get what they need.” Sounds a little bit like our beloved Dolly, now doesn’t it? 

While on the topic of inspirational artists, I asked Wilson if there were any not-so-legendary songwriters that have influenced her. She lit right up and said, “Just in the Texas area there are artists that are always inspiring me and challenging me to think about things in ways I normally wouldn’t. Tyler Tillman, who’s from Conroe, is always inspiring me. He’s kind of just at that starting point like I am. I was also in a band called Wildflower Road for a while. All of my bandmates were constantly inspiring me. They’d ask ‘Have you heard this song?’ or share how the Eagles formed and little facts about certain artists. You think you know a lot, but you start talking to people and you realize you know so little.” I couldn’t have agreed with her more. I strive to learn new information every day and speaking with songwriters over the years has taught me how daily living has inspired so many good songs. Overhearing checkout line conversations is a big one. Or just talking to people in general. Most of us have treasure troves of trivial or important information stuck in our heads and sometimes we let it out to just the right person. 

We were on a roll with songwriter secrets and Wilson was eager to relate a story about Sheri Swartz. Swartz, based in New Braunfels, Texas, took home the Songwriter of the Year award at the 2025 Josie Awards and her career is rapidly gaining traction. “Sheri Swartz writes for a lot of upcoming Texas artists like Elle Townley. One day Sheri was just talking about intros. She said something like, ‘Oh, I need to cut my intro for radio.’ I was just sitting there listening and she was talking about it casually. So I started thinkin’, ‘I don’t have to have an intro. I don’t like intros. This is awesome.’ So I started going through and cutting my intros down. You learn these things from other songwriters and it’s just because they’re randomly thinking about them. You write from being alert and looking at the world. I think it’s sometimes a butterfly effect. I think everybody, in some way, has been a piece of some art, whether they know it or not.” 

Celeste Marie Wilson has had some exciting and impressive experiences, most recently on June 12th when she was in Washington, DC at the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. She was eager to share details. “They have a program for upcoming artists to become their Ambassador every year and I won for 2026. That was a really big deal and I was so, so surprised. Every single woman who competed on that stage was very, very talented. I got to meet and talk with Bunny DeBarge (the lone female sibling in the iconic Motown family group, DeBarge) and a lot of other very successful female songwriters. I also got to share the stage with them that night.” Becoming Ambassador came with another valuable perk, 10 hours of time at a historic Washington, DC recording studio. Although she hasn’t yet taken advantage of that studio time, she is looking forward to it.

Light on time, I selected a card from a box of hundreds of random question cards. I read the question to Wilson, “If you were to die tomorrow, what would you want people to remember you for most?” Without hesitation she answered, “I would want people to remember me for being kind. The world with social media is sometimes so mean. At the end of the day we can only control our actions.”

Finally, because we are Center Stage Magazine, I asked Wilson, “So far, in your life, what would be your most memorable ‘Center Stage’ moment?” She responded, “I think that so far, my most memorable moment that made me feel like I was ‘Center Stage,’ was when I showed my grandma the song ‘Marie.’ I was sitting in the living room and I told her, ‘Nana, I wrote this song for you,’ and it made her cry. At that moment I knew this is why I do this. You hear all these stories growing up and to finally have them be more than stories, I think that’s very powerful.” 

Very powerful indeed. Be sure to give a listen to “Marie” for a music-filled rodeo romance that will bring you ringside to 20th century Texas, and keep up with Celeste Marie Wilson on social media.