Maia Sharp, Echo (2009, Crooked Crown Records)
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I distinctly recall the first time I heard Maia Sharp sing. It was the summer of 1997, and I was driving down a steep hill in Steelton, PA, on the way to the regular Tuesday night acoustic gig my buddy Jim and I did at the late, great Flight Deck in Middletown. I was thinking about the night’s set when a voice came through my radio (tuned to WXPN), telling a fugitive tale:

I left the town that was my future
To ride along with you
You said, “I’m going to California”
So I was going to California, too
You get a thrill from causing trouble
Life has offered nothing more
So we kept it to the back roads
Looking for an easy score
I need this to be love

The lyrics, as I could make them out then, were immediately compelling, but even more compelling was the voice—definitely female, but with a character that I, to this day, have trouble describing to people. I wind up explaining it away as a thickness, a sense of density, something with weight and sexiness and beauty. The song, “I Need This to be Love,” kicked off her self-titled debut album, one of my favorite records of that year, and one I return to regularly. (more…)