Hanx.net - Netherlands
ROMI MAYES - SWEET SOMETHIN STEADY
REVIEW: 4 out
of 5 stars
Guess you all know Laura Veirs. She came to my mind when I first saw the
sleeve of the new cd of the female Canadian Americana-singer Romi Mayes. The
same thin face, the same look. So will the music also be the same, I was
guessing: sad in slow tempo. Reality is a bit different. Mayes´ voice
sounds
familiar with Janis Joplin, or with Mary Gauthier when she sings a ballad.
Mayes has more in common with colleague Gauthier. An adventureous way of
life, giving her the stories for her songs about life, proving you don´t
have to be Hank Williams or his grandson to have the bottle for
companionship. I smoke more then I drink. I talk more than I think, she
sings somewhere as a lookalike of Gauthier, followed by what can grow out
as
a classic Americana-song, Bible, where she takes the bitter consequences of
her sadness: I don´t need no bible, I don´t need no lord. Eight
years Mayes
travelled around Canada before she decided to go back where she came from,
Winnipeg. Enough stories in the bagage for a new record, called Sweet
Somethin´Steady, of which the title track is a praise of the single
woman.
Coming back on that lovely gritty voice of her. She can use it for ever
genre. Blues, country, rock and folk, it´s all on the cd, in a dry,
tasty
production of Gurf Morlix. With around the singer a lot of keen and
sometimes rough snareplay by Chris Carmichael (guitar, also drums), Dan
Walsh (on tastemaker the dobro and slideguitar) and ofcourse Mr. Morlix on
guitar and as second voice. Sweet Somethin´Steady is a record from last
year, but because the cd now reaches Europe, Mori Mayes could be the great
Americana-discovery of 2007. (Bart Ebisch, Hanx)