July 14-20, 2005

musicpicks

Maria Taylor

Photo By: bill slitzmann

ROCK/POP

Even with optimistic lyrics about rose petals and lilac on "Speak Easy," Maria Taylor doesn't fall too far from the tree on her solo debut. One half of the songwriting team behind Southern indie-folk outfit Azure Ray, she continues the band's established aesthetic of whispered vocals and sad, ethereal tunes on 11:11 (Saddle Creek).

The ghostly "Nature Song" starts off with somber strumming and slowly adds cello to complement its succinct seasonal musings ("When it changes, fine, I'll go."). Later, "Xanax" juxtaposes staccato guitar and thumping bass drums to accent a treatise on abandoning fear and neuroses ("There's just a time when we must all let go of that that we hold.") Both could easily be Ray songs if the harmonizing voice were Taylor's partner, Orenda Fink, instead of Taylor herself. (We'll get to see if Fink tries anything different when her own solo record, Invisible Ones, drops in August.) Gentle and enchanting, Taylor's set on Tuesday should be the perfect comedown after Midwestern rockers Statistics.

Tue., July 19, 8 p.m., $8-$10, all ages, with Statistics, Taylor Hollingsworth and Ramona Cordova, First Unitarian Church, 22nd and Chestnut sts., 866-468-7619, www.r5productions.com.

—John Vettese