March to May is a ‘folk’ duo out of Seattle, WA. Formed in the Spring of 2013 as a collaboration between singer/songwriters Darren Guyaz and Beth Wesche. Overlaying Celtic folk harp, guitar & keyboards with rich vocal harmonies, they sing deeply relatable stories of every day life and what it means to love, to live, and to reach beyond what seems possible. They sing from the heart, and carry the listener to a place within their own imagination, their own story. I use the term ‘folk’ (using quotes) because while there are elements of traditional folk within here, there is much more involved and the influences run deep as the ocean. With each listen you unearth a little different piece of what these two fold into their sound.
The dynamic between Guyaz and Wesche’s vocal certainly lends itself to comparison of The Civil Wars. Maybe even hints of Damien Rice and Lisa Hanigan. A beautiful heartache of sorts is injected into their music. There is a delicate beauty and wavering texture to the way their songs twirl and dance. They use their voices as instruments and do so extremely well.
Sonically, some of the music here has an almost Victorian age color to it. The guitar styles and harps on “The Monk and The Lover” feel like they could have been playing at a theatre entertaining a king and his court hundreds of years ago. There is some true beauty in the ability to evoke such a vibrant picture in my head when I listen. This is one of the stand outs contained on this collection. I will be revisiting this tune again and again.
Where “Monk” is so successful, however, the follow up tune or 2 lose me a bit. Perhaps because I was so taken aback by the first tune and lost in the music a bit. I feel as though the duo is most successful when they sing together and the softness is really where it all comes together for me. “Falling Down” and “Count the Days” aren’t quite as captivating for me after being taken away by the beauty of the first track in the collection.
The remaining tracks on the collection, however, win me back again and the closing track “Crazy Universe” again hits on those harmonies and dynamics hard. I do believe I have found something I like quite much here. March to May is delicate but powerful music. This isn’t your “lets go to the gym and run 11 miles, Rocky” music, this is music that needs to be listened to. And deserves to be listened to intently. Two voices intertwining, occasionally becoming one, and then splitting back off again. Really beautiful.
http://www.marchtomay.com/about/
(photo courtesy of the artist)