Search - Maia Sharp :: Change the Ending

After four solo albums and one trio album (with Art Garfunkel and Buddy Mondlock), Maia Sharp has built a following through touring on her own and opening for such headliners as Bonnie Baitt, Keb Mo, Patty Griffin and Art Garfunkel.

In spotlights, on national radio and television, penning songs for Bonnie Raitt, The Dixie Chicks, Trisha Yearwood, Cher and many more, in writing sessions with Carole King, Lisa Loeb, Jules Shear and David Wilcox, behind studio consoles producing for Garfunkel, Edwin McCain and others, Sharp has proven her ability to excel wherever talent manifests itself in music.

Her last album, Echo, was produced by Don Was, but after producing Edwin McCain's latest album, Mercy Bound, as well as two songs for Art Garfunkel s upcoming record, she elected to produce Change The Ending herself. She wrote or co-wrote all 11 tracks.

Change the Ending is both intimate and varied. Sharp is a communicator, blessed with a broad vocabulary, verbal and musical. She writes conversationally, with an ear for finding poetry in direct expressions of emotion. The complexities of a relationship taking a wrong turn come alive over a strong medium-tempo groove and sharp melodic hook in the chorus of the album's first single, Me After You. A similar theme launches on Your Stepping Stone, with just a stinging acoustic guitar motif and a thigh-patted beat before morphing through a series of contrasting textures and feels. Sober sounds as the title suggests, a little fuzzy and woozy, though the message quickly takes an unexpected, ironic turn. And on I See Cecelia, which Maia penned with her father, the respected songwriter Randy Sharp, swinging brushes on the drums and sad but loveable Salvation Army style horns evoke the affection woven into her appreciative words.

While much of the material on Change the Ending is relatively new, some of it is more seasoned, particularly the songs that have already been covered by other singers. Standing Out in a Crowd is one example. Like many of Sharp's songs, it comes from her own experiences and observations, in this case regarding the loneliness that young girls in particular can feel when ostracized for being different. She might have sent out this message on an earlier album, if not for the fact that Trisha Yearwood released it first, several years ago. Change the Ending allows us even another glimpse into Sharp's artistry, through her saxophone solo on an instrumental remix of one track, Buy My Love.

Sharp grew up in Los Angeles, where she started playing local clubs while she was still in her teens. She gives a sly wink to her hometown s biggest industry with the new album s cover art. Filmmaking provides the perfect metaphor in the title track, as the narrator considers how a romance might have fared with a little rewrite. It s a beautiful story, she observes ruefully in the chorus. If you change the ending.

Sharp always leads with her heart and comes across as a performer worth getting to know, said USA Today in a three-star review of Echo, while NPR's All Things Considered hailed her as a songwriter set to arrive, and The Washington Post called her a sterling up-and-coming talent.