Corrinne May: I’ll be your Mr. Beasley if you’ll be my Yoko Ono!
Nov 27 '01 (Updated Feb 24 '03)
The Bottom Line Corrinne May is an excellent indie artist in the vein of Sarah McLachlan, Karen Carpenter, or Nichole Nordeman. Catch her live show if at all possible!
Have you ever noticed that there aren’t many Asian Americans prominent in the modern music scene? I made this observation a few months ago. Sure, if you look around a bit, you can find them. But I’m hard pressed to name a big name that everyone would recognize as easily as they’d recognize any number of say, Latin American or African American musicians. Maybe some more astute readers will pull a name out of the classical or jazz arena, and I will stand corrected. But in the realms of pop, folk, or rock, I can’t really come up with a name. (And no, Yoko Ono doesn’t count. I just couldn’t resist the urge to quote a Barenaked Ladies song.) I have observed that there is an entire subculture of music performed by Asian singers in Asian languages, but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about.
In an ideal world, that would soon change. In all fairness, it’s not like race matters all that much to me when I’m listening to a CD. If the singer/musician is good at what they do, that’s good enough for me. Still, my curiosity got the best of me a few weeks ago when I received an Email from the pastor of my church inviting me to go check out an independent folk artist by the name of Corrinne May, who would be performing that Friday night in, of all places, a tiny bar in Hermosa Beach, California. (When was the last time your pastor told you to go hang out in a bar? Of course, when you‘re a fan of an independent artist, you catch whatever gigs you can.)
A quick look at her website left me intrigued. Originally from Singapore, Corrinne May Ying Foo took up piano at a very young age, and quickly developed a penchant for creating her own melodies and irritating her teachers by refusing to practice her classical pieces. She learned to play guitar as she grew up, and developed a passion for the kind of songwriting that mixes the sentimental with the spiritual (Mmmm… my favorite kind!) With a degree from Berkelee College of Music under her belt, she set up shop in the Southern California area, honing her craft while playing the coffeehouse/bar circuit and putting out an independent CD in early 2001. Apparently her name got dropped around in a few places, because snippets of her songs have been used in the occasional TV show or commercial, both here and back in Singapore. Critical praise on her website likens her to a more acoustic Sarah McLachlan, or an updated Karen Carpenter. I suppose those are fair comparisons. She’s certainly less afraid to do a few upbeat, light-hearted songs than Sarah is. Her voice would certainly fit in well in a commune of 70’s folk singers, as a friend (and a big fan of that genre) who accompanied me to her concert affirmed. It’s a refreshing surprise - you wouldn’t expect the voice to match up with the face. Corrinne is young still - likely in her 20’s - and today’s music industry would probably love to make someone like her into a cute poster girl with a whiny, digitized voice, and sophomoric boy-trouble lyrics to boot. But instead of all that, we get a sweet but full-bodied voice that reflects wisdom, thoughtfulness, patience.
Simplicity is key, too. Most of her songs are built around a quiet piano or acoustic guitar. As much as I enjoy oblique lyrics and complex song structures, sometimes I just like to feel like I’m reading a simple love letter from the cute co-ed who sits behind me in class, perhaps unnoticed by all the other guys. Or perhaps sitting beside her in church listening to her pray out whatever‘s on her mind to talk to God about. That’s the feeling I get from Corrinne’s music. Seeing her perform live, in a room with perhaps 20 people (enough that she could introduce herself to everyone before the show and greet them all by name from on stage!) , added to that feeling of intimacy. Since I think her live sound is even better than her CD, I’m mostly going to review the set that she performed, with some side comments about the album (which can be ordered through her website if anyone’s curious).
Corrinne and her bass player, Todd Herzog, started off the evening with a few upbeat acoustic rock songs, “Something About You” and “Mr. Beasley”. They’ve since become two of my favorites on her CD. The former is a breezy number that delights in the sweet release of letting a close friend know that you have feelings for him or her. Coming from most artists, a lyric like “chocolate covered rainbows and cotton candy skies” would make me feel ill, but when are such words more appropriate than when “hir[ing] Cupid to make you see I’m more than your friend”? The sassier “Mr. Beasley” was an appropriate follow-up, a cute song about a well-intentioned man who is perhaps trying too hard to impress Corrinne, and who ironically manages to impress her most when he’s not trying at all. I couldn’t help but wonder if Corrinne was purposefully looking at me when she sang the line “I’d like to see your eyes through those goggles that you’re wearing.” Maybe I was the only person in the room with glasses; in any case, I related so much to the song.
Corrinne moved to the piano for a few songs, including a not-yet-recorded ode to patience entitled “Everything in Its Time” (which may well have been a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes - you know I love those subtle religious references), and a simple ballad called “If You Didn’t Love Me”, which she wrote after winning a contest that entitled her to meet and collaborate with Carole King. One thing that surprised me as the evening unfolded was that despite the timelessly traditional structure of her songs, the chords seemed to fall in unpredictable places, adding beauty and texture to otherwise basic compositions. The keyboard driven songs, all ballads, reminded me very much of CCM artist Nichole Nordeman, whom I’ve loosely compared to Sarah McLachlan in the past, so I guess everything comes full circle.
More upbeat tunes followed, including “Stay on the Road”, a pleasant take on the tentative nature of being almost in love with somebody but not knowing how long it’ll take to define the relationship, I noticed that the lyrics to this one were a little more on the cliché side, but I’d take it over a Max Martin tune any day! The other “new” tune of the evening (apparently so new that Corrinne had to scribble down the bass notes for Todd right before the show, causing him to warn the audience that he might screw them up) was an amusing ditty entitled “If I Kissed You”. It seemed similar to “Something About You”, asking if the world would suddenly turn upside-down and cute things like “babies gurgling” and so forth would happen if she showed her lover a little PDA. She got a good laugh when she ended off the song with the line “Would you run naked down the street with my name tattooed on your behind?”, and she gave us all a sly wink and commented, “Bet you weren’t expecting that, were you?”, to which Todd responded, “Are those really the lyrics, Corrinne?” I’d like to see her throw us a few more curve balls like that one if she puts out another record. One slight drawback (and I mean slight) about the CD was that the songs chosen played it a bit safe, with “Mr. Beasley” containing the only slightly quirky lyrics.
The highlight of the evening was probably a song of apology entitled “All that I Need”. Though it may not have been 100% obvious to every one in the room, I know a good worship song when I hear it, and this one was gorgeous. Something about the chord changes in this song, combined with the beautiful harmony of the two voices on stage, just hit every aural sweet spot possible. Interestingly, the album version has more “pop” production, veering away from the 70’s folk nature of most of Corrinne’s material. I hope I can get my hands on a live recording, but what I’ve got is still pretty darn good. I’m dying to track down the chords to this one; I think it’ll translate well into a corporate worship setting. I was warned by my concert-going friend, however, that figuring out chords to Corrinne’s songs might be an arduous task. Watching her play the guitar made that apparent. She’s certainly got a knack for sneaking a key change in there to keep a song from sounding ordinary.
Next up was the mid-tempo folk tune “Fall to Fly”, which made interesting use of a few paradoxes and metaphors to make a good point about taking risks, especially when romance is involved. Again, it wasn’t too hard to discern the more spiritual implications of the song, and such a theme will always get my attention, whether it comes from U2, Creed, Jewel, or just about anyone. (Come to think of it, if Jewel was less whiny, she wouldn’t be a bad comparison here, either.) Corrinne closed her set with two ballads - the touching tribute “Fly Away”, which was written for her mother back in Singapore who was sad to see her leave to attend school in America, and the more overtly spiritual “Journey”, which describes the long road of faith, specifically mentioning Satan and the price Jesus paid on “Calvary”. It takes a good amount of gumption to perform such a song in such a setting. It seemed well-received, but then, it was a pretty laid back crowd to begin with. This tune is also the closing track on Corrinne’s CD (not counting the bonus acoustic version of “Mr. Beasley”), and she likely posed it as the final and most important thought she wanted to express. That’s how I see it, anyway.
I was more than excited to compliment Corrinne on a great show, and walk away with a CD in hand. I later found out that Corrinne was a favorite among some of my church friends, and that my pastor was looking into getting her to perform at our church some time next year. Regardless of the venue, it’s well worth seeing her live, and I hope she’s able to get the exposure she needs to become more widely known, and maybe get a record deal. Logic seems to be telling me that if Michelle Branch has a record deal, there’s no reason Corrinne shouldn’t be able to pull it off. But then, maybe I shouldn’t wish that on her. Some artists just sound better without meddling producers in the mix. In any case, I’m glad to have discovered a new indie artists, a “best kept secret” of the local music scene, and perhaps to one day be able to say I liked her back when nobody knew who she was.
Concert rating: 5 stars
Album rating: 4 stars
Website: http://www.corrinnemay.com
Great Music to Play While: Drinking coffee and dreaming.
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Member: David Martin
Location: Pasadena, CA
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Just add an implicit "in my humble opinion" to every sentence I write.
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