Maybe August is one of the premier bands in Michigan. That they've finally released their debut CD is news - BIG NEWS. Those of you that follow the band are probably familiar with many of the songs. To Maybe August's legion of fans these songs are special anthems that reflect the spirit of the times with glorious harmony... and lyrics that mark our post-empire insecurities with incredibly agile humor. "a fine how do you do" is packaged in a plain white cover with a series of 5 unidentified black and white photos on the front, complimented on the back cover by 5 black & white photos of our heroes.

I like to call it....
"THE WHITE ALBUM"
The songs are listed on the inside with informative commentary by the band that gives you the 'skinny' on their individual and collective - conscious and unconscious - psyches.
All complete lies, of course
Which is even more telling...

But the narrative never reveals the identity of an un-named band member (Scott) whose proclivity for first date intimacy - usually before his girlfriend's arrival - has contributed greatly to Maybe August's sexy boy-band image
...or is it an avant garde image?

This is a "golden moment" for Maybe August...that moment of truth that may occur only once in a lifetime - or not at all.
Like degrees of awareness, Maybe August abandoned the safe and formulaic ways of creating popular music with a range and clarity of vision necessary to create an important body of work.
Music so thoughtful, so beautiful that it could only be given life by the synergy of five gifted musicians
Maybe August
In fact, this is one of the most cohesive and artistically satisfying albums I've l istened to in YEARS. Each song is a minor epic of complex music, soaring harmonies, and thoughtful (and often hilarious) lyrics.
Michael Robertson is finally revealed as one of the most gifted songwriter's ever to call mid-Michigan home. He composed 7 of the cd's 13 songs and co-wrote "Another Life" with his brother Scott.
So relax, listen - really listen - give in to the power of the music and float down stream....

"Another Life" opens with Michael's majestic soaring guitar and a funky syncopated rhythm. Scott portrays REAL LOVE - the forever kind - through a series of vignettes that suggest the karmic wheel is turning for these star-crossed lovers. A series of injustices befall them. Salem Witch Trials, Slavery, Nazi Germany - all serve on the time/place continuum as the lovers travel through eternity. And keep their love alive "for a hundred lifetimes"

Rosco's mournful wandering harp segues into a furious notation that sets the complex emotions and tonal landscape for "Restless Waters". This is a powerful statement about human dignity...even in the face of death and suffering. It is a first person account of the attempted genocide of Native Americans. Sung poignantly by Michael with powerful - slug-to-the-chest harmonies - by Scott and Rosco

"To the white man my ways may seem primitive"
"To the rich man my land is a resource"
"And manifests our genocide which he shows no sign of remorse"
"But my birthright is my freedom which I'd gladly die to save"
"You cannot take away my spirit though my body is enslaved"
I'm Alive"
"I'M ALIVE"
"I will not go quietly
"I will not bow down"

Honest. Powerful. A spiritual masterpiece in form and substance - without a wasted or misplaced word.
A P-E-R-F-E-C-T song.

"Jessica" is Rosco's tongue-in-cheek ode to "love at first sight" - a story about a chance meeting that could have led to romance but was only an innocent flirtation. It's an uptempo close harmony rocker done in good humor...
"She passed me going....85"
"And all I got was one quick look"
But I've always had the eye"
"one quick look was all it took"
She drove a '63 Corvette
"Like I always wanted to get"
"Face was pretty as can be"
"the rest of her I could not see"
"OOhhh....I didn't care"
"It's hard to flirt at highway speed"....
Sure 'nuff sends a tingle to another part.

"Pretty Ones" begins with a flashy spanish guitar intro. Scott's deep penetrating vocal lays it down in no uncertain terms. It's honest pain flows like a letter written but never mailed. It's accusation and anger is a catharsis.

"Your not the first one to stand here accused"
"A long list of narcisstic fools"
"Of all the things you've done"
"It's not one of the pretty ones"

A song about a friend who begins to believe in all his own lies. He's unaware of his fears. And because of those early primal wounds, he hurts others before they can hurt him. He's never done a decent thing that has gone unnoticed. And now a form of moral justice prevails.
He lost.

"Lay Down" is a complex song with several signature changes and obscure but accessible lyrics. A gentle acoustic intro is punctuated by the stroke of Michael's whining electric guitar and segues into Scott's yearning vocal. "Lay Down" is a childhood fantasy about love and loss. But it's really an existential question about THE void that is at once painful and necessary.

"Your real name is something they can't comprehend"
"There's no answer to the letters that I send"

Nathan picks up the beat, Keith's bass line pulsates and Scott sings to the uptempo syncopation...

"Some are far away"
"Some is gettin' nearer"
"opportunities are slowly being better"
"in an inner place"
"in a field of heather"
"we just laugh and play"
"a week goes on forever"
"something like a dream"
"we were little children"
Lay Down with you
The song slows down on the bridge...
"I want to be somebody"
"Just like you were".
The thematic complexities mirror the song's aural audacity. It's a long and winding road that ends too soon.

"Belltower" is wickedly funny. This is Scott's forte. And he's at his satirical best. Michael's great "Stepping Stone"-like guitar riff opens the song. Gather all your things lets go"
"I've got two left feet on my right hand
It's hard to steer with my head in my rear"
"Someday you may find me naked in a belltower"
"Someday you might see me in the midst of a hail of gunfire"

"Pick up your shit and get out"
"I'm in love with a girl from No Doubt"
"It's Gwen and Me
"Mr. Scott Stefani"
"I was a jack of all the trades"
"now that jack guy has it made"
"all this or that"
"And he wears a cool hat"
"My condition is stable"
"Someday we will be dreaming"
"about some songs hidden meaning"

Rosco sings lead on "Burning Out" a straight out country rocker that's warns about the glare of the spotlight. That black hole of consumption that has taken it's toll on more than a few of our brightest and dimmest stars. You may have met or even known someone who "burned the candle at both ends". The type who starts where everybody ends. There is a compelling "Workingman's Dead" close harmony that drives the song. And the sweet accapella break is terrific. The vocal "sweetness" belies a stark and straight forward message.

"Gotta Run" is my favorite song on the disc. It is a perfectly executed funked-up satire that recalls the best tendencies of Warren Zevon, Mose Allison, Frank Zappa...or some of those other crazy bastards.
"I'mmmmmm... older than I look
"Younger than I feel"
"I try and keep up a place that approaches the surreal"
"I'm living for tommorrow"
"there's nothing left for today"
"there's nothing left to borrow"
"I spent it all yesterday"
"It's what I've done"
"Sorry But I gotta run"

"I can't take this anymore"
"my lips are tired, my knees are sore"
"There's gotta be a better, better way"
"my hands are on the steering wheel"
"I can't describe how good it feels to be in control"
"Gotta find me some direction"

"I didn't make any money and the market was good"

"I shouldn't have taken her home"
"that night I spent in the wood"
"She used to be so pretty"
"But now she weighs a ton"
"She was my winter hurdy-gurdy"
"She said, Do you wanna meet your son"

"Sorry but I gotta run!!!"

From the wonderful and twisted lens of Michael Robertson.

"Wish List" is a Rosco Selley's soul strut. It's driven by a funky Archie Bell & the Drells-like guitar riff and Rosco's intricate and rich harp work. Underneath the funkified-good time music is a scream echoing in the existential void. A man is sinking in deep water with no reason to believe....

"Just a little more reason and a lot less chance
"A little more love, a little less romance"
"I'm trying to find a reason to believe"
"I'm struggling everyday"
"And I can't wait for the future"
"So I'm taking my pleasures today"

So...we all deserve a little sparkle in our lives. OK?

My Own Little World" is a mid-tempo ballad with mandolin and acoustic guitars modulating the aural landscape. Rosco adds a mournful harp groove that underscores the existential void in the message. There are competing and complex emotions at work... disappointment and acceptance... questions of how and where he fits into the world.
A life simple and unencumbered by vain-glory and celebrity. Of course, there is an unspoken wish for massive fame that is coupled with a quiet understanding that such recognition can NEVER validate art. It's about a thoughtful perspective boxed up in a guilded cage and yearning for expression. Michael takes lead vocal with Scott and Rosco singing harmony in a dynamic counterpoint...

"I never slept with Tina Martyn"
"I never danced across the mountains on the moon"
"I never sold out a night at the garden"
"I'm quite content in my cocoon"
"Where I know everyone and they know me"
I don't expect to much or they of me"
"We don't use big words like hyperbole"
"I'm a stranger in my own little word......"

"I don't believe that love is all you need
"I don't believe the truth will set you free"
"I don't believe that there is a single cell inside of me
"that gives a damn what anybody else believes"
"Cos I know everything"
"Bout how it should be"
"I don't expect too much
"your mentality "
"I've got some great big plans"
"Just you wait and see"
"I'm a stranger in my own little world"

"Making up your mind is harder than you think"
"Not today"
"Go away"
GO AWAY"
"People talk too much without having a thing to say

"I've never slept with Tina Martyn"
"never sold out a night at the garden"
"I'm lucky just to have the folks in this room"
"Cos I know everyone and they know me"
"They don't expect to much from a big fish like me"
"I don't play great big chords"
"like A7 over G"
"I'm a stranger in my own little world...."
Another masterpiece from the heart and mind of Michael Robertson

Big Sky opens with Michael's plaintive guitar accompanied by Rosco's amazing harp - sounding in turn like a horn or a mellotron. And the guitar interplay between the Robertson brother's is sonic perfection. The singer's spiritual journey - the search for beauty and meaning - is an internal process that evokes a wish to see and touch it's manifestations. Big Sky is the metaphor for the God-Head.
"Wake up Monday morning
"leave that afternoon"
"make Big Sky by sundown"
"it won't be too soon"
"I can see the Mountain's arms out-stretched to the clouds"
"touch the face of my God"
"Before whom I bow"
"And I want to fly from here"
"If my soul had wings"
"I'd fly from here and see...
"the heavens"
"I want to fly from here"

Say Something is a quiet ballad sung by Michael. It's gentleness belies the devastating feelings evoked by the message. It's a story about a family. Not unlike any American family. Heroes and villains. Love and betrayal.
Dissolution
And the sadness is overpowering as you sit back and watch the dance from Michael's perch...
"She cries when she...
"thinks about a little face"
"that use to fill and make her day"
"now the sounds of later fade away into...
the sounds of emptiness"

"Seems the hours choosed to fly away"
"is rather like a winter's day"
"waiting for the summer's rays"
"but just a voice to say hello"

"And the arms that use to comfort her"
"and kept her warm and secure"
"left her feeling quite unsure"
"but how could 40 years go by like a moment"

"every morning brings a new sun"
"to relieve the tired one"
"and promise a new day"
"Say something "
"make the silence go away"
"Say something"
"make it worth another day"
"Say anyhing"
"but don't just walk away"

Dear Carrisa is a mid-tempo rocker - a sonic revelation - about a long-ago failed relationship of the "it's me not you" variety....little more than a one-night stand. The protagonist feels some guilt about it - but he knows his lover is better off without him. This is not much of a comfort to Carissa...which makes him feel even more like a big homemade turd.
"Dear Carissa you won't...."
"remember who I am"
"Lies and secrets I can't..."
"conceal that I the man who..."
"last night thinks he's Jesus"
"says he will come again"
"take you to someplace like heaven"
"But won't tell you when"
"Dear Carissa"
"I hope you understand"
"I'll be leaving in the morning"
"There's a blue sky that's in my way"
"Cos I'm leaving in the morning"
"dry your tears...
"and I'll be on my way"

Step into the circle and experience the vitality of Maybe August. It's pure and beautiful... exuberant without a trace of fear. It is like returning to the womb and experiencing the world for the first time.

The "release" comes in knowing and Maybe August KNOWS.
So give in and feel it
The making of "a fine how do you do" is like living in a fantasy world where the musicians can let go and see what happens...
Dreams may come true
A hit record
And a sudden truth is revealed - the journey is more significant than the destination.

As thoughts sometimes just think themselves, creativity is a wonderful mystery....a spontaneous combustion
But it's more than that
Maybe August lovingly and painstakingly developed the songs through live performances.

Maybe August has created music that feels timeless. And permits us the deepest of truths...to look inside ourselves for something palpable and solid and to accept the elusiveness of it's meaning.

Peace
Bo White