Sara May grew up on a dirt road just outside a small Ontario town known for its Honda plant and Potato Festival. Over the course of ten indie-leaning, alt-country tracks on Legacy, her latest album as Falcon Jane, she expounds on that origin story through the great archetypes of country music: the drinker, the vagabond, the absent father.
She presents these characters with a clarity and empathy that feels almost transgressive—a loving touch that crosses our rural / urban divides. But these are Sara’s stories too: her rural childhood, her move to Toronto, her current home in the working class town of Shelburne, and her life on the road.
She comes by it honest.
And the transformation on Legacy isn’t just lyrical. Alongside producer José Contreras (By Divine Right), Falcon Jane refine their sound—pushing toward folk and country like contemporaries Waxahatchee and Angel Olsen. May’s voice, the one constant from 2015’s Alive n Well EP, through the dream pop of her 2018 debut album Feelin’ Freaky, to the sprawling indie rock of 2020’s Faith, is more powerful here, sitting atop the warm, Nashville-leaning production. The result is both striking and blindingly obvious: Sara May has found her way back home.
Produced by José Contreras and Sara May
Recorded and mixed by José Contreras in Toronto, Ontario
All songs written by Sara May
With arrangements by Sara May and Andrew McArthur
Performed by:
Sara May: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Piano, and Synth
Andrew McArthur: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Wurlitzer, and Percussion
Dylan S. Keating: Pedal Steel
José Contreras: Vocals, Percussion, Keys, and Steel Guitar
Lee Rose: Violin
Mutt: Backing Vocals on "I Get Myself"
Mastered by Heather Kirby at Dreamlands Mastering
Album artwork and design by Cameron Law
Additional design and layout by Nick Faidley
Cover photo by Dominique van Olm
