Wednesday 24 July 2013

Did You Hear Me Review

The Mavis Seed
"Did You Hear Me" 


The Mavis Seed are a four piece, Leeds based acoustic folk/pop band and “Did You Hear Me” is the live follow up to their well regarded 2012 album “Caravan”. 

The album captures 8 songs from their cannon and is described as “100% Live” for that reason alone, it is worthy of our attention. 

Although they create music which broadly fits under the folk banner there are many touches of jazz, soul, blues and Americana spread throughout their work. 

The live sound is captured beautifully and I suspect it is where they are at their best. The vocals are shared between Guitarist Reedy Zined & Sara Dee, both of whom have voices well worthy of writing home about. It is when the voices combine, however, that The Mavis Seed show their real prowess. Their voices are perfectly matched and the sound they create between them is, to use a cliche, greater than the sum of its parts.  

Among the highlights from the album are “Still Waters” which brings to mind Elvis’s early acoustic recordings and “Travelling man”, which combines a cracking melody with soaring harmonies. 

The title track “Did you hear me” offers the combination of a deceptively simple, pared down guitar refrain and the highly accomplished, heartfelt vocal by Sara Dee. It is simply beautiful and for me, it is the standout track of the album.  

The album has accompanied me up and down the M1 for the last couple of weeks and has grown on me with each listen. It is due out on 7th August and The Mavis Seed will be appearing at Drighlington Rugby Club, Leeds on 16th and The Snooty Fox in Wakefield on 31st.

Karl Shore

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