Mayday

For Québec-based guitarist and singer Myriam Gendron’s fascinating 2014 debut record, she took the unusual step of recording a concept album inspired by the works of poet Dorothy Parker. She went on to release Ma Délire in 2021, an album of ‘songs of love’, and reissue the Parker collection, Not So Deep as a Well, last year. Now she returns with the addition of drummer Jim White (Dirty Three, PJ Harvey, Kurt Vile) plus bassist Cédric Dind-Lavoie, electric guitarists Bill Nace and Marisa Anderson, and saxophonist Zoh Amba. This record provides an intriguing shift from the sole guitar and voice setting of the debut, but the latter’s beautiful spirit of simplicity carries over. We get the best of both worlds, with jewels such as ‘There is No East or West’ presenting Gendron’s quite wonderful fingerpicked guitar playing unaccompanied, both gentle and stirring as it is. Elsewhere, we have the full band, and together the players weave an organic tapestry which feels intimate and suffused with nature. ‘Long Way Home’ is testament to Gendron’s skills as both composer and lyricist – cocooning the listener inside a bitter-sweet soundworld. Across every track, the assembled musicians play with an openness and togetherness, breathing magical life into this talented artist’s work.