Bio
About Leticia
“Maher plays to her strengths: meticulous songwriting, mellifluous vocals and smooth
acoustics which never sound hectic or affected. Her touch is easy and assured.”
The Independent Weekly (Adelaide, May 10)
It’s been an exciting journey over the past year for the Melbourne singer, songwriter and guitarist, beginning with the release of her acclaimed album Fallen Angels.
Highlights included an appearance at the St Kilda Festival, a support show for the Black Sorrows in Geelong, Victoria, and a guest appearance on ABC Radio’s Coodabeen Champions show. Her successful limited Adelaide Fringe season in 2010 was capped with a sold out show. This year she is presenting five shows at the 2011 Adelaide Fringe.
More recently, Leticia was nominated as a top four finalist as “Victorian Best Female Vocalist” in the Victorian and National Country Music Awards (also a finalist in 2005). Currently touring her album around VIC and SA, Leticia is launching her album in NSW and QLD in 2011. The album has been receiving strong community radio airplay around the country...
“Leticia Maher has been catching the ears of many. Her guitar and voice combine
to create sometimes touching, sometimes cheeky tales of a life well lived.”
Melbourne Fringe (Oct 2010)
Produced by Aria Award winner Craig Pilkington (Killjoys, The Blackeyed Susans, Mick Thomas, The Lucksmiths), and recorded at Audrey Studios with some of Melbourne’s most talented musicians, Fallen Angels keeps gathering accolades:
“Fallen Angels, in all glory, is an amazing record. Full of the touching bluesy-folk-pop Leticia Maher is renowned for, it will obviously karmically repay those who indulge in its whimsical charms.”
Terry Broun Jr, Beat Magazine (Melbourne, Aug 09)
“Fallen Angels is highlighted by immaculate production,
warm sophisticated arrangements and delightful ballads”
Stephen Davenport, The Independent Weekly, (Adelaide, May 10)
“Fallen Angels is a very warm, very classy album”
Michael Cathcart, Bush Telegraph, Radio National (Sept 10)
Above all, her crystal-clear, haunting voice and her atmospheric, emotive guitar playing draw you in. An instrument capable of broad swathes of expression torchy soul, playful country, sophisticated pop jazz, vampy blues to smoky cabaret, Leticia’s voice has won her many Victorian and national country music awards.
Her singing brings to mind the clarity of Eva Cassidy, the intimacy of Bic Runga, cool grooves of Diana Krall and the compassion of Sarah McLachlan. The Independent Weekly said: “Her soothingly gentle voice paints pictures over wafting guitars and slick compositions that have both a blissful naiveté and yet a profound dejection”.
The first single Behind Your Smile was released in April, 09 “a delightful song... the songwriting is strong” says Inpress Magazine, (Melbourne 09) it is about trusting, finding and not losing the best in yourself; in the soul ballad Walk Away the character pleads with her lover to let go; Hello Perfect Day describes gratitude for a peaceful perfect moment over lazy jazz infused reggae.
The record moves to a lighter and more playful mood the sassy Come On Boy and Popcorn with double meanings of food and love. For the albums grand finale, Fallen Angels - a heartfelt appeal to humanity concerned with how people treat the environment and one another “Great imagery, haunting lyrics prophetic message.” says Scala Inc.
The Fallen Angels Story
At 4am, one cold September Saturday morning, Leticia Maher looked back at the year’s work on her album Fallen Angels - and realized she had nothing.
Nothing that sounded close to a finished album, her precious music files held to ransom, and facing the prospect of having to start the record all over again, she remembered a name scribbled in her dairy a year before.
So she wrote an email to Aria Award winning producer Craig Pilkington, asking if he could listen to the unfinished tracks. “I didn’t even know him, but he called the next day and said he would listen. I just wanted someone impartial to tell me if I should stop or keep going.”
Work on the album began in January with a hand-picked group of Melbourne musicians, including Peter Robertson (drums), Grant Cummerford (double bass), Ron Tabuteau (guitar/dobro), Anita Quayle (cello) and Bruce Haymes (keyboards).
The band rehearsed for a couple of months, then recorded 14 songs in productive sessions starting at Easter. But only a few months later the record had become bogged down in fruitless edits and remixes. “The songs seemed to be getting lost and I didn’t know what to do. All I had left was the edited tracks.”
And it was these basic tracks that turned up in Audrey Studios at the start of a new year, with producer Craig Pilkington now at the desk. “I had taken the tracks to seven other studios but Craig was the only one who really believed in the album and understood what I wanted.”
Fallen Angels Accolades!
Time to leave it to others to do the talking...
“Leticia Maher’s country folk-pop has been catching the ears of many, especially since the release of her album, Fallen Angels (2009). Her guitar and voice combine to create sometimes touching, sometimes cheeky tales of a life well lived. Maher has won many Victorian and national country music awards, but her work ventures into many other genres including soul to jazz and even cabaret.”
Melbourne Music, October 2010
Website: melbmusic.com
“Last month, Melbourne singer Leticia Maher lauched her very warm, very classy album Fallen Angels. In the program today, we've been thinking about mental health. This is a wonderful song to sing for a friend who is going through dark times.” Michael Cathcart, introducing Behind Your Smile on Radio National’s Bush Telegraph, 27 September 2010
Website: www.abc.net.au/rn/bushtelegraph
“Leticia Maher’s debut album Fallen Angels is highlighted by immaculate production, warm sophisticated arrangements and delightful ballads. Maher knows exactly what she’s doing as she plays to her strengths: meticulous songwriting, mellifluous vocals and smooth acoustics which never sound hectic or affected. Her touch is easy and assured.” Stephen Davenport, Independent Weekly, Adelaide, May 10, 2010. Read more...
Website: www.independentweekly.com.au
“Coburg's Audrey Studios (ARIA award winner Craig Pilkington) has played host to many of Melbourne's finest musicians over the years, with The Blackeyed Susans, Mick Thomas and The Lucksmiths all crafting their pop wonders under its roof. Now you can add Leticia Maher to the hallowed list.” Rip It Up Magazine, Adelaide, 24 Sept 2009
“The production on this album is exemplary... Leticia is able to
convincingly deliver an album that draws you in. The more you listen to
Fallen Angels, the more you discover... there’s a certain confidence
that comes through with her vocal delivery - which comes from a place
of self belief and inner awareness... I anticipate great things to come” Markos Gyzi,The Dwarf Fallen Angels Album Review, 30
August, 2009. Read more...
Website: www.thedwarf.com.au
“Fallen Angels, in all glory, is an amazing record. Full of the touching bluesy-folk-pop Leticia Maher is renowned for, it will obviously karmically repay those who indulge in its whimsical charms”. Terry Broun Jr, Beat Magazine, 12 August 2009. Read the full article in press clippings...
“A delightful song... the songwriting is strong”. Behind Your Smile Single Review - Inpress Magazine, April 09
“This is beautiful... it sounds like a mixture of Lucinda Williams, My Friend The Chocolate Cake and David Gray”. Catherine Deveney, previewed Behind Your Smile on Melbourne's ABC 774
