Quick Facts
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May Erlewine is a musician from Big Rapids, Michigan. She sings and plays the guitar, piano, violin, and other instruments. She is also a songwriter, with over 15 albums of original work published since the beginning of her career, in the early 2000s. Her songs have been covered by other artists, on the local and national music scenes in the United States. May Erlewine is part of the Earthwork Music collective, an independent label that promotes original music from regional artists. Earthwork was founded by May's husband, Samuel Seth Bernard, who is a musician and singer-songwriter himself. May performs solo acts, duos with Seth Bernard, and in various bands across the Midwest.
Work
May Erlewine was born to a musical family; her father Michael was a member of the Michigan blues band The Prime Movers and her uncle is a luthier. Her work shows a variety of musical influences, such as folk, bluegrass, blues, rock & roll and others. It has grown from her experience as a child, home-schooled and surrounded by music, and as a teenager, when she hitch-hiked across North America, riding freight trains and performing on the streets.
Like other musical artists, Ms. Erlewine's songs are the expression of her experiences. She spends the best part of her year writing songs and performing in Northern Michigan.
In their 2007 album Big Old Life, the New England band Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem covered one of her songs, Shine On.
The movie Old Fashioned, released in 2014, included her performance of Joy, along with the author, Ralston Bowles, in the original soundtrack.
In 2015, Shine On, was selected and performed by singer Sawyer Fredericks in the final round of NBC's TV show The Voice, which he won. Coincidentally, Joshua Davis, a singer-songwriter who is part of May's music collective, Earthwork Music, was also a finalist on The Voice that year; he went all the way to the final round, which included Fredericks.
May Erlewine is featured in the Rise Again song book released in 2016, a sequel to the popular folk music fake book Rise Up Singing, containing chords, lyrics, and sources. The two original May Erlewine songs included in the second edition are: Rise Up Singing, from her 2007 album Mother Moon, and Shine On, from the 2005 Seth & May album, jointly released with her husband, Seth Bernard.
Discography
- Sleepless (May Erlewine, 2003)
- Heart Song (May Erlewine, 2004)
- Seth Bernard and Daisy May (Seth Bernard & May Erlewine, 2005)
- Mother Moon (May Erlewine, 2007)
- Snow Songs (May Erlewine, 2008)
- Welcome Back (Seth Bernard & May Erlewine, 2009)
- Love Labor (May Erlewine, 2009)
- Golden (May Erlewine, 2010)
- Wedding EP (Seth Bernard & May Erlewine, 2011)
- New Flower (Seth Bernard & May Erlewine, 2011)
- The Long Way Home (May Erlewine, 2012)
- We Can Change / Siren Song (Seth Bernard & May Erlewine, 2013)
- Where We Are (May Erlewine, 2014)
- Shine On (May Erlewine, 2015)
- New Flower, Volume 2 (Seth Bernard & May Erlewine, 2015)
- Lean Into the Wind (May Erlewine, 2016)
Family
May Erlewine and Samuel Seth Bernard were married in 2011. They have a little girl named Iris.