ROMI MAYES: Romi Mayes and The Temporarily Employed: The Living Room Sessions VOLUME ONE

Romi Mayes

Romi Mayes and The Temporarily Employed: The Living Room Sessions VOLUME ONE

© 2005 Romi Mayes (634479132100)

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country bourbon bluegrass

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"This is the sort of sound you'd want to hear pouring out of roadhouses as you drive up expecting to get drunk and maybe fall in love." (Americana UK Magazine)


Romi Mayes' sound is also the sort that folks just can't get seem to get enough of. Quoted as being one of the hardest working independent musicians in Canada, in the past two years alone, she has toured well over 400 dates to acclaimed festivals, packed theatres, dance halls, bars, pubs, cafes, and living rooms across North America. Her last two Americana/roots enriched albums "Living Room Sessions" (2005) and latest "Sweet Somethin' Steady" (Gurf Morlix, 2006) have been nominated for various prestigious music awards. Both of Mayes' albums have charted on radio stations worldwide landing on a plethora of "Best of" top year picks.


Mayes has no plans of slowing down. With her award winning "Sweet Somethin Steady" attracting mass international media attention and her fan base rapidly increasing, Mayes is earning her place at the heavyweight songwriter's table with the likes of Mary Gauthier, Lucinda Williams, and Gillian Welch.


Raised in the concentrated and extraordinarily talented music community of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Mayes' writing and performing has been nurtured since she was a young teen. "When I was 15 I got up on stage and played a couple of tunes. The room was silent. They cheered for what seemed like hours when I was done. I went home and knew that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."


Now, at age 32, Romi Mayes has shared the stage with the likes of Ricky Skaggs, Iris Dement, Gurf Morlix, Bo Ramsey, Pieta Brown, Hayes Carll, Jim Cuddy, Lynn Miles, Barney Bentall, Corb Lund, Martha Wainwright, Fred Eaglesmith, Ray Condo, Camper Van Beethoven, and many more.


With her unique mix of bourbon infused country, blues, and bluegrass, Romi Mayes' engaging live show will make you miss your mouth when sippin' your beer. Her sexy, sincere vocals have made grown men cry, her solid bad-ass guitar playing has had folks up out of their chairs, and her honest, edgy songwriting is putting her on route to becoming the Joan Jett of country.

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  • The variety in the music and the songs is a key to the success here.
    author: Larry Delaney

    If you were around the Canadian music scene in the late 80’s and experienced the early buzz surrounding the music of k.d. lang (at least the excitement part of that phenomena); then get ready for another chapter of the same thing. Romi Mayes, a Winnipeg bred singer/songwriter has that same raw excitement and intensity to her music; and she keeps it totally rooted in ‘country’. If you want to put a label to this latest album of her recorded work…call it “Mainstreet Hillbilly”; and you won’t be too far off the mark in identifying the style. Romi Mayes has written all eight songs on this new collection which has been dubbed The Living Room Sessions – Volume 1. (She has released previous works on albums by Off The Wagon, and Mayes & Carmichael). The material here covers a wide range – opening with a rippin’ humdinger in Styx & B.T.O. (Tease Me); then moving into a moody blues number in Ordinary Sunday; and then getting royally energized in Comin’ Home Soon, which features a Flatt & Scruggs-styled banjo intro and some sawing fiddle that would make Vassar Clements and John Hartford take notice. The variety in the music and the songs is a key to the success here. On Mama Ain’t No Fool we get a haunting vocal delivery by Romi Mayes; and on the very next cut, Arkansas, it’s a rocky trip into Moonshine country. Out Of Touch again has a loneliness to the vocal and the song’s bare-bones acoustic arrangement (which is pretty much the norm for most of this) is especially effective. But Mayes doesn’t mellow out too much…she gets the toes a-tappin’ on Never Got You; and then closes out this all-too-brief collection of tunes with a terrific blues-driven tune in Drink Until Four, on which she is accompanied vocally by Jaxon Haldane. In addition to Haldane’s vocal contribution and his banjo, dobro and guitar parts, the “temporarily employed” crew featured here include the superb lead guitar work of Chris Carmichael (two songs, Ordinary Sunday and Arkansas were both previously featured on the Mayes & Carmichael duet album); with Tom Fodey on bass, and Grant Siemens sitting in on lap steel. Also featured is the outstanding fiddle work of special guest Tania Elizabeth (of The Duhks, the Winnipeg-based band who contributed a track to the recent Grammy award-winning Stephen Foster Tribute album); whose work here puts the icing on the proverbial cake. The album is sub-titled “Volume 1” … hopefully an indication that there’s lots more of this to come. For info /copies visit www.romimayes.com

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