BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:-//NONSGML Sandhills Development\, LLC//NONSGML Sugar Calendar Fe eds v3.4.0//EN X-WR-CALNAME:Maia Sharp X-WR-CALDESC:Portland Downtown X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20230312T070000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20230312T070000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Maia Sharp DESCRIPTION:“I always want to write in a way where people will plug th eir own lives into the song\,” says Nashville-based singer-songwriter Maia Sharp while reflecting on her forthcoming 9th solo album\, Reckless Thoughts\, due August 18. “And I want them to choose this album becau se it provokes whatever it is they need to feel.”\n\nThe culmination o f a 25-year career that’s included writing songs for the likes of Bonn ie Raitt\, Trisha Yearwood\, Cher\, and Art Garfunkel\, Reckless Thought s both continues and refines a confessional mood that emerged with Sharp ’s previous album\, 2021’s Mercy Rising. While that record was an Am ericana eruption of emotions from the end of a long marriage and leaving her native California\, Reckless Thoughts is a more nuanced\, clear-hea ded review of that life-changing roll of the dice. “This album took so me searching\,” mulls Sharp. “It was more of a challenge\, because I ’m not in the middle of a dramatic emotional mess anymore.”\n\nBorn in California’s Central Valley\, Sharp and her family moved to Los Ang eles when she was five. Following in the footsteps of her Grammy-winning songwriter father\, Randy Sharp (Linda Ronstadt\, Emmylou Harris etc.)\ , she studied music theory at California State University Northridge\, b ut was originally a saxophonist. Her focus as a songwriter and then perf ormer – initially influenced by Raitt\, Ricky Lee Jones\, Paul Simon\, and her dad – emerged only at the turn of her 20s.\n\n“Once I start ed doing that\, it just changed my chemistry\,” Sharp recalled. “Wha t drove me to get on a stage and sing is my love of songwriting more tha n anything else. And I knew it was a long shot that I would find a home for every song with another artist so I became one of those artists.”\ n\nWithin two years of her debut show\, Sharp almost simultaneously land ed her first cut for a major artist (on Cher’s 1995 album It’s a Man ’s World) and signed recording and publishing deals with industry lege nd Miles Copeland. Soon she was being jetted off to songwriting workshop s in a French castle alongside the likes of Carole King\, Jon Bon Jovi\, The Bangles\, and The Go-Gos.\n\nIt was a crash course in songcraft tha t’s helped Sharp carve out an enduring career as both a solo artist an d songwriter\, as well as a producer for Garfunkel\, Edwin McCain and ot hers. She’s toured extensively in the US and UK\, including appearance s on NPR’s “All Things Considered\,” CBS Early Morning\, and the T ODAY Show\, while also an NYU adjunct professor and a longtime participa nt in Songwriting with Soldiers’ writing retreats for veterans.\n\nWit h an intriguingly androgynous voice and rare medley of influences\, Shar p has happily confounded pigeonholing throughout her career. She’s bee n labelled country\, alt-country\, roots\, and pop – sometimes on the same release. The 10-track Reckless Thoughts\, its title a reference to scenarios that spun in Sharp’s head as she pondered a new life in Nash ville\, is a songs-before-style caress of what’s now broadly termed Am ericana. It’s a record with an honest heart and refreshingly appreciat ive aura\, conveyed through Sharp’s sublime timbre and innate\, cultur ed melodic instincts\; an audio exhalation after surviving the transitio n into single life in the natural songwriter’s habitat of Nashville.\n \n“I never thought I would leave California\,” she said. “Once I d id\, I had a feeling it would be easier to build a community in Nashvill e\, but I had no idea how much easier it would be. It’s really tapped into something I didn’t know I needed so badly.”\n\nThe self-produce d Reckless Thoughts was largely tracked at Nashville’s Resistor Studio \, with owner/engineer Joshua Grange (Sheryl Crow\, k.d. lang etc.) also contributing electric guitars and lap steel. The perennial influence of musical collaborator\, mentor\, and longtime friend Bonnie Raitt is onc e again evident\, amidst flecks of Phoebe Bridgers’ contemplative melo dicism\, the country-folk eloquence of the late John Prine\, and Bon Ive r’s adventurous spirit. The album is preceded by digital singles “Ki nd” and “Old Dreams.”\n\nA jaunty co-write with longtime collabora tors Mindy Smith and Dean Fields\, “Kind” celebrates and craves non- judgmental compassion in the current era. The song’s “My kind of peo ple are kind people\,” hook is both an earworm and a reassuring breath of faith in humanity. The piano- and slide-kissed “Old Dreams\,” sp ontaneously composed with Grammy-nominated Garrison Starr during a wine- fueled nighttime chat\, explores the exorcising of old ambitions we some times forget to update to reflect all we’ve learned since they were fi rst built.\n\n“I love when a song also serves as a reminder to myself\ , in this case\, to let a dream change and grow up with me. That one jus t hits me in the gut\,” offers Sharp. “I’ve played it for just fou r people\, all from different walks\, and they all cried. I think we’v e tapped into something universal.”\n\nHead-bobbing\, thought-provokin g album opener “She’ll Let Herself Out” will be released to radio to coincide with the album’s August release. “It isn’t literally a bout she’s gonna let herself out of a situation or relationship\,” S harp explains. “It’s that she doesn’t need anybody’s approval she already knows she’s valid\, and she’s got this.”\n\nReckless Thoughts will be supported by solo touring\, beginning with two dates w ith Bonnie Raitt in Louisville\, KY June 30 and Indianapolis\, IN July 1 . URL;VALUE=URI:https://portlandmaine.com/events/maia-sharp/ UID:urn:uuid:c3fe790a-6da1-4606-a62a-85884fb0da76 STATUS:CONFIRMED ORGANIZER: DTSTAMP:20260731T085753Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230826T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230826T230000 LOCATION:181 State St\, Portland\, Maine 04101\, US END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR