Romi Mayes and the Temporarily Employed “Living Room Sessions Vol.1” (Independent 2005)

With the set up of a powerful female voice, banjo, lap steel, fiddle, layers of harmony and mostly traditional country styles, this reminds me a lot of the Geraldine Fibbers. There’s plenty of energy at work here, the picking is as fluent at birdsong, it feels very much like a live recording and very nearly is - ‘three sessions, six people, eight songs, one living room’ sums up neatly the energy of the songs and the closeness of the players. The slow ‘Ordinary Sunday’ shows off her voice to best effect, the tune lyrical, restrained and leaves space for her voice to soar and swoop in lazy patterns like a swift riding on air currents. This is the sort of sound you’d want to hear pouring out of roadhouses as you drive up expecting to get drunk and maybe fall in love.

- David Cowling, Lead Writer
www.americana-uk.com, Americana UK