Maya Rae – Can You See Me?
Black Hen Music – 24 April 2020
The girl can sing. That’s the first thing you realize about Maya Rae. The way she plays with a phrase is magical, slurring and sliding, investing it with layers of meaning. She doesn’t over-sing, instead, she slips into a groove and becomes a part of it. Her new album, Can You See Me?, is her first disc of original tunes, and only her second overall, co-written by Maya and her brother, Gabriel. According to the CBC, she is, “A supremely gifted artist who is able to phrase like Sarah Vaughn but write a lyric like Joni Mitchell.” And did I mention she’s only 18-years-old?
But then nothing about Maya Rae is exactly what you’d expect. She recorded her first album of jazz and pop standards at the ripe old age of twelve. Yet she sounds like a veteran on Can You See Me? Strikingly, her voice is very much upfront in the mix, almost forcing you to listen to it, even though the organ riff and acoustic guitars are insistently irresistible. The country-politan feel of I Get By, with fiddle and organ blending beautifully while Maya lays out her feelings, “I don’t know what I’m gonna say, I don’t know if I need to say anything, I don’t see what your problem is with me, I just get by on that sweet sweet autumn breeze.” This is a young woman who clearly knows who she is.
A simple synth line leads into a track that offers the kind of positivity in short supply during these isolated times, no matter how dark things may get, The Sun Will Come Out Again. Offering rays of hope, examples of a downtrodden student, a subway musician, and a woman with a baby leaving a relationship forever, there are still moments of hope, “someday there’ll be a sunrise, there’ll be sunshine time, when mornings come they’ll bring the sun.” As Maya relates, “no matter one’s current situation, whether it be big or small, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. That dark, upsetting feeling will not last forever.”
Recorded over the space of five days in Nashville, guitarist and producer Steve Dawson has assembled a crack cast of musicians, Kai Welch (keyboards /trumpet), Jamie Dick (drums), and John Estes (bass). Raising the stakes even higher, both Allison Russell and JT Nero from Birds of Chicago offer backing vocals.
Wise beyond her years, Maya Rae shows herself as an artist who knows what she wants. Based on the power and authority of Can You See Me?, this is a young lady who can have whatever she wants.
https://youtu.be/TMtRNa7Omls
Photo Credit: Mark Whitehead – Get The…Shot Studios