"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." - Americana UK Magazine "Music from the heart and soul, Romi makes it look easy." - Bob Harris, BBC"Romi Mayes is the hardest-working person in the Americana scene right
now. That's good, because she has a great new record out, and it deserves
to be heard." - Slaid Cleaves, songwriter
"If Ray Charles and Joan Jett had a love child, you'd get Romi Mayes" - Jason Nowicki, musician
From the centre of Canada, deep in the prairies, comes an unstoppable force that is becoming a household name across the globe: Romi Mayes. Suitably pronounced “Raw Me”, Mayes is a straight shooter with heart on your sleeve lyrics, edgy innuendo, and some serious bad ass guitar playing. She writes down home country blues about love, sex, drugs, and the road. She can be soft and sweet or just down right dirty.
Her latest release "Achin In Yer Bones" is another testament to exactly that. Taking home Album of The Year, and Songwriter of The Year at The 2009 Western Canadian Music Awards, she unravels herself from song to song throughout the album, with no filters and no shame. But honesty is only part of the charm, not the main talent here. Mayes also won 2007 WCMA Album of The Year and Songwriter Of The Year awards, was nominated for Songwriter of The Year by The 2006 Canadian Folk Music Awards, and also won the 2006 Whiskey Award for Album of The Year - all for her previous album "Sweet Somethin Steady". It is undeniable and one can really hear where her true gift rests when you hear Romi Mayes or see her perform. On her latest album, Mayes' effortless, matter-of-fact lyrical style weaves poetically around fantastic production, credited to renowned producer Gurf Morlix (Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier) who also worked with her on "Sweet Somethin Steady".
It is no wonder a producer like Morlix would come up to Canada in the cold of winter from his home base in Texas to work with Mayes again. “Romi's writing on this new album is better than ever,” says Morlix. “She's got the flint and she's got the steel - everything she needs to take her anywhere she wants to go.”
Commonly referred to as the hardest working musician in Canada, Mayes tours steadily and relentlessly across the globe from solo shows in smaller venues to rowdy rockin bar shows to tightly arranged full band sold out theatre shows. She has shared the stage with the likes of Ricky Skaggs, Iris Dement, Guy Clark, Derek Trucks, Jim Cuddy, The Flatlanders, Slaid Cleaves, Martha Wainwright, Hayes Carll, Fred Eaglesmith, Corb Lund, Billy Joe Shaver, Sue Foley, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Dale Watson and many many more. Romi Mayes is charming, passionate, comedic, and with whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other can out-cuss any sailor on a Saturday night.
