Maya de Vitry‘s third solo album Violet Light is a superb collection of country-tinged folk music. Raised in Pennsylvania and now based in Tennessee, she’s been a part of the U.S. folk scene for 10 years now since starting out as a founding member of The Stray Birds. On this album it seems she’s really finding her voice – opening her heart in these 11 songs about busking with friends, losing dear canine companions, surviving close brushes with death, and being inspired by a favorite female author. Recorded with an expansive crew of guest musicians and produced in a basement home studio during the pandemic, these songs also broach some difficult topics like police violence, the deaths of close family members, and the oppression inherent in global capitalism.
But what’s it sound like? Maya has an absolutely beautiful voice for this kind of gentle, personal country folk music. A sweet soprano that reminds me a bit of Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station) and a bit of Michelle Willis (Three Metre Day), on the quieter folk songs, with a hint of sultriness where it’s called for, and a bit sweet and sour twang on the more country numbers – think Heather “H.C.” McEntire of Mount Moriah. That’s what first caught my ear, was her soaring country vocal performance on “How Bad I Want To Live,” an emotional tale of a close brush with mortality while hiking in Hawaii with boyfriend, co-producer, and bandmate Ethan Jodziewicz.
There’s more where that came from on the stomping acoustic country “Watches Out Of Diamonds.” This one’s a deceptively upbeat tune (including a kazoo solo by Maya) with sardonic lyrics about about wealth inequality and the climate crisis. “Ethan and I recorded this one just the two of us, the way you might hear it if we were busking on the side of the street, with just a jangly guitar and a kick drum,” she notes.
There’s not a lot else that’s upbeat like that on Violet Light. She says in the notes that “Leftover Tears” started out as a bluegrass anthem but they switched gears and turned it into a lounge-worthy ballad complete with vibraphone. That’s the album closer, so I’m getting ahead of myself. The album starts strong with “Flowers,” a gentle jazzy ballad complete with lovely Rhodes keyboard and some subtle horns. It’s a heartbreaking post-apocalypse song whose protagonist is a young girl asking her mother to sing the song about the flowers again. Another highlight is the lilting waltz “Margaret,” inspired by the writing of Margaret Atwood. It has a heart-rending, heart-warming chorus that’s made to shine by the harmony vocals of alt-country newcomer Ric Robertson:
What can I say, just be good to your sweethearts and gardens
Be good to your dogs and your faraway friends
When you find bits of light hold on to them tight
You’ll need all of them when your world changes again
The various musicians who contributed to this album’s excellent arrangements deserve a lot of credit. Like fiddler Kristin Andreassen and guitarist Chris Eldridge on the delightful “Dogs Run On,” a tribute to the canines Maya has known in her life. (“Days pass away but dogs run on,” is just one of the very true lines in this one.) Maya herself plays fiddle as well as guitar on her ode to her old days of busking her way across the country with like-minded musical friends, “Never On The Map,” which really shines with the addition of keys by Nashville session player (and former Jayhawk) Jen Gunderman.
Perhaps the most wrenching song is “Not A Trick Of The Eye,” a reference to ultraviolet light which human’s can’t see but some other animals can, and Maya uses it as a metaphor for the double trauma of witnessing police violence and then having that eyewitness experience discounted. Another hard hitting song is “I Don’t Ask Trees,” with a slightly oblique lyric that Maya says was inspired by her recovery from the damage done by an abusive relationship. Tristan Clarridge’s cello (he’s best known for his playing with Crooked Still) hits just the right note on this one. As do Kaia Kater-Hurst’s harmony vocals on that heart-tugging closer “Leftover Tears.”
But of course there wouldn’t be songs for all those superb musicians to contribute to if not for Maya de Vitry. Violet Light is soothing and uplifting without ever looking like it’s trying to be. She’s just writing songs from her heart and we’re all lucky that they so closely meet our needs right now.
(Mad Maker, 2022)
Stream in the usual places and order on Bandcamp.
