It has always been a source of joy and wonder when you come across an excellent artist who should be better known. In some cases, you wait for that moment to arrive, and in others you have to give a gentle push. Ten years ago I happened upon the music of Canadian songwriter and outstanding blues roots singer Romi Mayes (I can’t remember how, but it was possibly an Amazon recommended link). The album was the quietly rather good “Devil on Both Shoulders” that had just been released, Mayes’ seventh album. Almost immediately, I also purchased the album that preceded that one, “Achin’ in Your Bones”, which had the excellent Gurf Morlix playing and producing.
Mayes was born in Winnipeg in 1975 and first fell in love with the blues when friends suggested she listen to Muddy Waters, to augment her love of classic rock in the form of Hendrix or Led Zeppelin. She never looked back. She was discovered busking in her late teens outside a record label’s offices in Toronto. Her first appearance on a release was with a band called Off The Wagon in 1997. Although her music was more varied than just the blues (she wrote folk and country songs and occasionally dipped into modern bluegrass), her voice, a sweet but often a down and dirty rasp, fitted her blues style somewhat better and her albums, if not out-and-out blues, always have a certain blues balance to them.
A couple of rather amateurish solo albums led to the release in 2006 of “Sweet Somethin’ Steady“, produced by Morlix, a charming mix of folk and blues with some brilliant guitar contributions from Chris Carmichael, Morlix and Dan Walsh (lap steel and dobro). The next album was the afore-mentioned “Achin in Your Bones” (2009), an altogether bluesier album. Morlix this time dominated the guitar contributions (his bottleneck slide can be a thing of beauty). Most of the album was on the slow side with three or four more upbeat but slightly less bluesy tracks.
A live album followed in 2011, brilliantly demonstrating her blues chops and featuring some altogether outstanding electric guitar from Jay Nowicki (for much of the album it was just Mayes and Nowicki playing electric guitars). It was 2015 when the album that first introduced me to Mayes was released – another album with a good balance of slower and meatier songs, and, as often with Mayes, ending with a slow acoustic number, this time with just piano accompaniment courtesy of Marc Arnould.
And then, not very much. It was not that Mayes was not busy; although she was not touring as much, she was running a record label and a bookings agency. She had won a string of awards and was nominated for a Juno (Canadian Grammy). In a 2020 interview she said, “A lot of people can’t get into the studio fast enough because they have 30 songs ready to go and they just have to start recording them,” she says. “My problem is always the opposite. Every few years, I have to like at least 12, 15 songs so maybe I can get 10 to 12 songs that I like on an album. Now, it just seems like life has taken a different turn. I’m not touring as much, not focusing on my career as much. I only have a few songs that I like right now.” Nevertheless when she did play concerts, she was fortunate enough to have enough original material to fill a set list – surprisingly she only played one cover at her gigs, Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring It On Home to Me’.
Fast forward four years and, hallelujah, a new album appeared in 2024 , the delightful “Small Victories”, a nicely balanced album of slower and more acoustic tracks in the first half, followed by a build-up of more bluesy offerings. It’s a very confident return with tracks focusing on love, perseverance and personal obstacles while at the same time reflecting on the ‘small victories’ that you feel when little things go right.
Perhaps opening up on record in a way she has not done before will lead more people to seek her out. It’s a fascinating back catalogue well worth exploring. Take a listen.
