Maplewood Lane

I went to the Maplewood Lane show at the Solstice Cafe on Saturday night and it was great. My church brought them over from the mainland to play this little gig for us. When Dave, the guy who books our musicians/artists for us, introduced the band he said that they probably wouldn't be "small" for very much longer and now I can see why. Lush, guitar pop/ alt-rock is kinda how I would describe the band. Think Sarah Harmer and Aimee Mann, with a little Wilco/Jayhawks feel and it would give you the gist of it. They played a great show of intricate guitar-pop songs with sparkling harmonies and solid musicianship throughout. My only complaint is that they vocals were too quiet most of the time and thus you could not hear lead singer Rebecca Rowan's vocals. As a guitarist myself, I really appreciated the atmospheric, tasty lines of lead guitarist Ryan Worsley, Not a gunslinger, he was more like a Jonny Buckland (Coldplay) with simple, but memorable and interesting solos and fills. I picked up both their first album and their new EP and they were fantastic. It was nice to be able to hear the vocals and the playing was uniformly stellar throughout. Very moody and melancholy, yet also uplifting. I am very excited to hear what this group does in the future and will be keeping tabs on them as they go.