PENGUIN EGGS

Romi Mayes
Achin in Yer Bones
(Independent)
Winnipeg artists seem to have a hotline to Texas-based producer-guitarist Gurf Morlix these days. Fast on the heels of Manitoban Scott Nolan’s Morlix-produced Receiver/Reflector comes singer-songwriter Romi Mayes’ sophomore effort, which benefits in no small measure from the Morlix touch—that is, fleshed out arrangements with plenty of smokin’ stringwork that still leave lots of room for the featured artist. Overall, the album is not what you would necessarily call groundbreaking, but Mayes has an assured, affecting voice that injects something genuine into the old cheatin’ and hurtin’ (to name but two truncated gerunds) boilerplate. Along with Morlix’s gritty guitar contributions (and co-vocal on Mercy on Me), Mayes draws on a top-shelf assortment of local collaborators, including D. Ranger, Jaxon Haldane, who throws in a few harmonies and co-wrote Tire Marks, a honky-tonk jukebox staple in a better world than the one we currently occupy.
– By Scott Lingley