As we know by now, The Stray Birds left us in September with the parting Let It Pass, the last of their great albums. A central figure in making those was co-founder and often frontwoman, multi-instrumentalist and superb vocalist/songwriter Maya De Vitry. This solo effort, Adaptations, gives De Vitry the freedom to put those great gifts to work, going alone. Daunting as it may be, it seems as if, in a weird way, she was destined to do this. She says, “it really did take me a while to get to that place on confidence. These songs were from a time of almost self-exile or something. Eventually, I began creating from a place that I realized that not fit into any other context but myself.”
Shuttling from Pennsylvania to Nashville, listening to Neko Case, and finding tons of inspiration in nature and walks in the woods, she began gathering ideas. She and acclaimed producer Dan Knobler worked together on the songs and recruited a band in the early summer of 2017 (before the Stray Birds breakup which was imminent anyway). Players include Jason Burger, Sam Grisman and Anthony da Costa. De Vitry can play a variety of string instruments, most notably fiddle, but eschewed that, choosing instead to just play acoustic guitar. Apparently, she didn’t want the sound of a bluegrass album. Knobler had Russell Durham arrange some of the songs and add strings and woodwinds to what had already been cut live. Ironically, as a trained classical violinist, De Vitry was pleasantly surprised to have these accompaniments.
Her voice is among the most ethereal and pure in roots music. One can be transported by the sheer beauty of it, heard first on the opening “Wilderness,” effecting a haunting spirit complete with chirping birds, and a crescendo of guitars and strings. She keeps a similar vibe in “What Said the Moon,” written after a moonlit canoe ride with friend and fellow songwriter Courtney Hartman. Nature proves to be a key theme but there are others too.
It’s likely no secret that the thrust of The Stray Birds was the relationship between Maya and co-founder Oliver Craven. So, it should come as no surprise that she comes to this project with an inner perspective. In fact, she cites writing these songs as transformative, revealing her thoughts on friendship, womanhood, freedom and the meaning of love in its closeness, freedom, and vulnerability. She captures several of these thoughts in “My Body Is a Letter,” reflecting on how the body holds tight to love and trauma equally. “Go Tell a Bird” is about boundaryless love, inspired by both Nick Drake and time spent living with a local family in Cuba in early 2017, where she watched Trump’s inauguration speech. That gave her more fuel.
Moving away from her romantic relationship, De Vitry focused on the value of friendship, most vividly in “The Key” which depicts how we connect with strangers. But, as you may have guessed, she is a romantic at heart, brought to song best in “How Do I Get to the Morning,” helped by the harmony vocals of Oliver Wood.
Maybe De Vitry has a potentially better career ahead as a solo artist. Let’s hope that her songwriting and her amazing voice, a real treasure, stay with us for a long time.
