Today’s review features Michael Gutierrez-May’s new album the “Light Still Shines The Same.” Mike, as he calls himself, has been involved in the Boston and New England folk/acoustic scene for almost 35 years.
Mike is quite an empathic storyteller, with a nylon-string guitar and an endearingly playful voice. The characters in Mike’s songs “benefit from a holistic perspective”, informed by Mike’s background as a mental health therapist. Mike’s elevator pitch reads: social worker by vocation, writer and musician by avocation. Mike studied classical guitar at George Mason University with Larry Snitzler, a former student of classical guitar icon Andres Segovia. Mike switched from classical music to folk music, but kept the nylon-stringed guitar.
In the early 1980s, Mike became immersed in the New England folk and acoustic music scene as a promoter, a booker, and an occasional performer. For two years, he managed the Peacock Coffeehouse in Jamaica Plain, Mass., until it shut its doors in 1988. “Shortly after the coffeehouse closed, I recorded a demo tape of ten songs I had written, performed at some open mic showcases, and then promptly crawled back into my shell, not ready to do more than just that with my music,” Mike shares.
Several years later in 2008, Mike started to frequent the local open mic at the Catbird Café in South Weymouth, Massachusetts where he met host, Stephen Martin, who has performed on Mike’s three previous albums, and produced Drifting to The Right in 2021 and also Light Still Shines The Same at the end of 2024. That creatively fertile environment reignited Mike’s passion as songwriter and a performer, and he would go on to hone his craft through songwriting and singing workshops at the Blackstoe Valley Music school in Uxbridge, MA.
Mike released a nine-song album titled “Drifing To The Right” in Dec. 2021. It’s an impactful album delivered with warmth and humanity, and it speaks to the qualities valued and embodied by the artist himself.
The new album, “Light Still Shines The Same”, was released in December 2024 and has been described as a “luminous journey through history with heart and humor” by Whitney Miller of Vocal Media. The two singles, Destiny and She was My Angel can be found on Spotify, Pandora and other streaming platforms and the title track Light Still Shines The Same is currently featured on the World Music platform Ethnocloud, where it is #19 in the Top 40 for the month of March.
So let’s have a listen …
The first song on the album is Destiny. Starts with an acoustic guitar and then straight into the vocals. This is a folk song. The singer’s voice has a quirky, eclectic feel. Nice chord changes, arrangement, and flow to the song. “My mother was a hippie, and she named me Destiny.”
Light Still Shines The Same, the title cut, starts with a nice electric guitar solo. The singer’s style is more talking over the changes, rather than full-on singing. The electric guitar gives a sort of swamp blues feel to the track, which I say in a good way. “The light still shines the same, on everyone.”
She Was My Angel starts with a finger-picked acoustic guitar. It features the same type of talk-singing male voice, but includes ethereal female backing vocals. A nicely constructed song. “She was my angel, but she passed away.”
Two Stoplights starts off with a two-chord vamp, which is the main structure of the song, although it has a chord-lift when the chorus hits. The two-chord structure gives the song a very dark folk feel. I like the strings that are present in this track. The vocals are in the same talk-singing style.
Fortunate starts off with an acoustic guitar strumming along, with an electric guitar playing lead softly over the top. “Looking at this from afar, how fortunate we are.” Same type of talk-singing vocals. Very nice chord changes in the bridge of the song.
When Dawn Comes To The City starts with an upstroke strum on the guitar, which gives way to a heavy two-chord acoustic guitar strumming pattern. I like the sound of the acoustic guitar on this one, very folky. Same style of talking vocals. The song lifts throughout the bridge, then into the verse chord pattern, singing “Remember that it’s dark before the dawn.”
Hello I Must Be Going starts with a lifting guitar vamp and the same style of talk-singing. Not really digging the lyrics to this one, particularly the main rhyme of “going” with “Boeing”. The song tells a story. I think here, the talk-singing style does not serve the song well. I like the plane landing sound at the end of the song.
Five Twenty Four is a very slow folk song. Finger-picked acoustic guitar vamp. Same talk-singing style. A song about our journeys through life.
Marijuana Gummy Bears Picnic starts with children laughing, then a two chord vamp “with the smell of cannabis in the air” and gummy bears. Same talk-singing style in this one and consistently throughout the record. I like the Burning Man reference in this song. I get the impression that the many characters in the song are all marijuana gummy bears, who melt.
Overnight. “Tonight I’ll be traveling overnight.” “I’ll be coming late, sorry about the wait.” A song about driving at night, and how we contemplate our lives while we are on the journey. Horns and a flute add ambiance.
Apology Song is one long apology to “the person in my past … due so long ago.” The song features a finger-picked acoustic guitar throughout.
Last One On The Bus starts with a tale about standing around, waiting to catch the bus. He tells details of the trip, but not with the type of flowery language that you expect from a songwriter; the lyrics are a little too straightforward. The song then goes into a slightly quicker bridge. “I’m getting older” as he looks at the different life choices he could have made.
The mix, mastering, and production are very nice on this record. Hats off to Executive Producer Stephen B. Martin and Joe Clapp, the Recording Engineer. The playing and performances on this album are all pretty good. My only real issue with the album is that I don’t particularly like the talk-singing style or the voice of the lead singer. That being said, if you like talking folk, storytelling type of songs, you may really like this album. It’s very mellow throughout. Some nice music to listen to while working.
SCORE/Good: Michael Gutierrez-May delivers a musically interesting folk album. He has a talk-singing style that is good for storytelling, and the album is full of good stories. If you’re a fan of this style of folk, this might be a nice album for you to check out. Much love, Beth
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