Album: Sunseed / 14 tracks / June 19, 2007/ Drifter Records Inc. (licensed to Universal Music Canada)
Hayley Sales, who now hails from Vancouver Island on Canada’s west coast, is truly a rags to riches story. She was born in the projects of Washington D.C. and now is a singer/songwriter/producer, well on her way to stardom. I first caught a few minutes of a Sales’ interview on a Vancouver radio station early in July, but what really caught my ear was the music they played into between the bits of dialogue.
On
her
website the recently turned twenty years old says, “I was born in a
Washington, D.C. ghetto, in a Victorian hippie house my mom had lived in since
she was a baby. My father had a basement-recording studio where everyone from
Miles Davis to rap artists were coming in. Those were the first few years of my
life. I was raised with that music, with the beats and the melodies that
vibrated the house—they were the soundtrack I danced and sang to.”
Sales’ self-produced album Sunseed debuted at # 7 on the Digital Albums charts when it was released on June 19th. By the first few bars of “Jailcell Mind,” the opening track from Sunseed, you know why Universal Music Canada wanted an exclusive license for Sales' music and why she is garnering a lot of attention. Her voice is emotive, she sings with authenticity and her lyrics are simple yet believable. At times, her vocals remind one of Sarah McLachlan. At other times such as when she sings “What I Want,” she eerily sounds like a reincarnation of Jewel performing “Who Will Save Your Soul.” The lilt of the voice and the cadence of her poetry are similar.
She is hauntingly beautiful in the somewhat mystical, “Paint By Numbers,” and her ethereal vocals run counter to the low deep beats emanating from Jordan Stringer’s Udu drum.
The fifth track, “Wished You Were Here,” is typical of the music that Sales writes and sings. The lyrics are fresh, upbeat, light and simple. The music is uncluttered and does not dominate the track. As she does on thirteen of the fourteen songs, she accompanies herself on acoustic guitar. For the most part the other instruments are pushed further back in the music, providing an opportunity for her beautiful vocals to shine through. The song “Wished You Were Here” starts off as a daydream and transitions into whimsical happy memories with a former relationship. This is not a heartbreak song, but like the other songs on Sunseed, it presents life in a positive light.
Sales, her father Richard, who also plays guitar on the album, and John LeMay mixed the CD at GlassWing Studios on Vancouver Island, where some of the songs were recorded. Mike Gillies and Shawn Penner of Mushroom Studios in Vancouver recorded the balance of the CD. All of the aforementioned people are to be commended for striking a CD that is well balanced, clear and does a great job of keeping the levels for the vocals and instrumentals in the right proportion.
“All Roads Lead To Jamaica” is a mellow funky tune that resists the temptation of a white girl trying to do reggae and instead opts for some chording and subtle guitar effects to suggest an island theme.
As her beautiful acoustic guitar performance on “Invisible Cities” proves, while vocals are definitely her strong suit, she can cut it as an artist on the strength of her skills as a musician, without having to sing. She does not sing one single note on “Invisible Cities.”
One has to think that with guitar riffs and drumbeats that capture you from the onset, combined with good hooks that “Keep Drivin’” has a future as a single. This song would be a good fit for the college radio market.
The song “Dragonfly Eyes” has some very subdued blues elements and “Braille,” is a gentle piano ballad, in which once again Sales accompanies herself, only this time as a pianist.
You cannot really put a label on the music of Hayley Sales which is a good thing for a number of reasons because it broadens her base of listeners, demonstrate her versatility as an artist, and selfishly I admit because this writer detests genre labelling. She has mellow pop running through her vocals, hints of alternative roots (I think I just invented that) in some of her instrumentals and overall she just seems like a displaced hippy from forty years ago.
What remains to be seen is if the talking heads at the commercial radio stations are wise enough to lay aside their predetermined formulas to air the songs of a very gifted singer/songwriter. In case you did not get the message behind this review, Riveting Riffs thinks Hayley Sales is one of the most incredibly talented musicians, singers and songwriters to come along in a very long time.
Reviewed by Joe Montague for Riveting Riffs (www.rivetingriffs.com)
Reviewed August 2007
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