Sun 3/15 @ 7PM
Hey Mavis is one of those northeast Ohio bands a lot more people should know about because their fan base would grow exponentially if they did.
The band was formed in 2008 by ex-Rhondas singer/ banjo player/songwriter Laurie Michelle Caner and her husband, violinist Ed Caner, who has played everything from classical music to folk rock to aggressive noise rock. They’ve already released two of the most adept and appealing albums of what’s generally called Americana of any area band: 2010’s Red Wine and 2013’s Honey Man.
Both albums drew from homespun roots music such as country, bluegrass and Appalachian folk, melding those influences with a musical and personal sophistication that was smooth without being slick.
The band’s new album, What I Did, which they will debut at a concert at Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Happy Days Lodge, is both a little folksier and a little more urbane. Produced by Adam Aijala, guitarist of the Colorado-based Yonder Mountain String Band, and recorded and mixed by their long-time collaborator Don Dixon, the songs seem to be breathing mountain melancholy while Laurie’s indomitable vocals give them a sort of stoical steeliness and Ed’s loping, changeable violin gives them lift and momentum. There may be an underlying front-porch feel but this front porch is pretty rarified terrain.
There’s a effortless pliability to her singing that keeps the dark edge of a song like the title track from becoming too oppressive and lends a delicacy to the intimately sad balladry of “Longing for the Past” or ‘Graveyard Stone.”
While the southern country/folk flavor is the album’s predominant one, they inject other ones too. “The Love We Gave” is a big, portentious song with a dancing rhythm that’s vaguely Celtic. “Mon Bijou” adds eastern European overtones as Ed Caner’s fiddle/violin can take on virtually any ethnic color; the song has a slinky, verging-on-jazz flair that suits Laurie’s elegant vocals. And the album concludes with the lively “Honey on the Hill,” a sly and sassy uptempo tune that ends in a hectic instrumental breakdown.
In addition to the Caners, the band includes bassist Bryan Thomas, guitarist Kevin Johnson and drummer Anthony Taddeo. After the local CD release show, the band will be hitting the road for a regional tour.
Tickets are $12.
conservancyforcvnp.org/hey-mavis-cd-release
Photo by Jerry Mann
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