The Maeflies debut CD Goodbye Sometimes is everything you hope for in an “indie” release. This fresh, nine song release on their own Purgatory Creek Records is a fat tub of the Maeflies’ special cocktail; friendly, familiar elements, stirred into an utterly new concoction: Maeflies Music.
These are songs about love, dreams lost, dreams found and the long, twisted trails of a real life. The heart is the compass. Everyone makes the trip. You just may find a little bit of yourself etched into a Maeflies lyric.
This band of 5 hails from Minnesota, the Land of Dylan, Koerner Ray and Glover and of course the Jayhawks. The Maeflies know their way around any iteration of guitar, including pedal steel and electric 12 string, flat top and it’s next of kin: the mandolin. The signature Maeflies harmonies and driving low end suggest a nod to Buffalo Springfield & the Byrds. Include cues from Canadians Neil Young and Kathleen Edwards (hey, it’s just a few more miles up the road), a dash of Dixie-tell-you-about-it vibe a la Lucinda Williams and Gram Parsons and you are in the neighborhood. Kasey Chambers lives around here, too. Have a seat. See what you think.
The ability to pass around the lead vocal reminds one of the best of The Band or even The Beatles…every Maefly can sing. Each track holds a pleasant surprise or two, yet feels like Maeflies music. But this is no 60’s nostalgia trip. This is New Millennium Country-politan. Sort of a country cousin with a hankering for good sushi and staying up late.
Mae, the leading lady and namesake, makes it obvious from the first lines of So Long Lisa as to why it’s the Maeflies. The Flies are 4 guys in the orchestra: Spike, Eric, Biff & Jeff. The three year old ensemble has decades of friendship at it’s foundation, and the feel-good, friendly live shows the Maeflies are known for seep through the record to the listener. This band likes to play together.
For a weekend last summer, the Maeflies set up the stuff, filled up the fridge, broke open the songbook and laid down the tracks. A few weeks later they finished the vocal tracks, handed it all off to the highly respected JR Hammond and mixed it. What came of it is a record that does exactly what the ‘Flies intended: the Maeflies as they sound onstage in a busy little bar, on a night like this one. So spin the record, meet the Maeflies, and all the reasons they do these songs.
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you had your cake and ate it too! the flies have never sounded better than last night at the fine line, that room was made for your band. mae, thank you for lending a hand and your great voice to circle, it was a blast.
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