Roots rocker/road hog Romi Mayes ups the ante

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Romi Mayes (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

Last year, Romi Mayes looked at her career, looked at her finances, and saw she was at a  crossroads.

It was three years since her last record, Sweet Somethin' Steady, blew up the roots scene. Nobody -- not even Mayes herself -- expected the record to do what it did: win two Western Canadian Music Awards, land on the Top 10 lists of publications like Penguin Eggs and No Depression, and spur its chanteuse across Europe and into the depths of the United States.

And after three years of non-stop touring on the same album, "I was due for another," Mayes says. "But I didn't have the capital. So it was either don't make an album, or ask the fans."

Ever the pragmatist, Mayes picked option B. In December 2008, she threw a fundraiser at the Times Change(d) to raise the cash she needed to make SSS's followup. Fans rallied behind the cause. "It was humbling beyond belief," Mayes says, relaxing in her Wolseley home during a brief tour break. "I've been very proud all my life to do things on my own. But I needed every penny."

Those pennies added up. Tonight, Mayes is releasing her brand-new album, Achin' in Yer Bones, for the hometown crowd. Expect the unexpected from this one: it surprised Mayes and producer Gurf Morlix too.

"I had no idea what kind of album I was making," she recalls. "It wasn't until the end when we listened to the album in its entirety. And I went, 'Oh, I made a mellow, edgy, dark, electric blues album.' I thought I would be making a rock 'n' roll album."

Rock, blues, either way, Mayes is already taking whatever-it-is on the road -- the Free Press squeezed in an interview at her home-cum-band hangout shortly before she left for Italy -- though she put off touring until her daughter Ashley, 9, flew to British Columbia to spend the summer with her father.

"It's always a bit of a dual life, to be a mother and a road hog," Mayes says. "When she was four or five, I took her on tour a bit. But now that she's older, she has a life of her own, and school's more important now."

Despite juggling two of the most all-consuming roles in the world -- independent musician and single mother -- Mayes makes it work. She handles her own business, does her own promotion, and turns down label offers.

"A lot of people don't have any business sense. They don't want to think about money," she says with a shrug. "If I lost my hands and voice, I would want to go into publicity. I wake up in the morning and I'm working all day on the computer."

And then heading out at night and rocking the clubs. For Achin' in Yer Bones, Mayes contracted a new backing band, the Weber Brothers, to "step up" her live show. Over the years, Mayes has logged plenty of solo time. Now, she's ready to rock.

"The ante has really been upped," she says. "All the light acoustic stuff was wearing me down. The Joan Jett in me wanted to come out."

Romi Mayes releases Achin' in Your Bones tonight at the Pyramid Cabaret. The Perpetrators, Joanne (J-Rod) Rodriguez, and members of the D. Rangers will be rocking it up with her. Tickets are $15 at the door... if there are any left. Showtime is at 9 p.m.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

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Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 14, 2009 E9