The inspiring music of Corrinne May

Heady, sincere, other-worldly and haunting are some of the words often used to describe the music of Corrinne May, a Singapore-born singer/songwriter who is now based in Los Angeles. At a time when female pop artists in Asia tend to be either cute and peppy or dark and edgy and in some cases, truly avant garde, Corrinne May chose to different. Her music is simple, her themes spiritual. Listening to her feels like refreshing rain after a drought or like getting a gentle lift from strong arms after a fall.

Named after the Ray Peterson hit tune Corrinna, Corrinna, Corrinne May majored in Mass Communications and English Literature at the National University of Singapore. She next took off for the US where she majored in songwriting and film scoring at the Berklee College of Music. Determined to pursue a career in music, she relocated to Los Angeles 10 years ago.

She got her big break when she joined a competition that required contestants to compose the melody to a lyric written by two of pop music’s biggest names, Carole King and Carole Bayer Sager. Corrinne May won the contest and the song If You Didn’t Love Me became one of the cuts in her debut album. She has since recorded three more hit CDs and became a major concert draw in Asia and the US.

Corrinne May is often referred to as Singapore’s Sarah McLachlan. There is some similarity in the way they sing. However I see the light touch with which she approaches her material as closer to Jim Brickman and the engaging lilt in her melodies is more reminiscent of Jack Johnson. But what really makes her unique is her deep spirituality. A devout Catholic, Corrinne May derives inspiration for her work from her Faith.

Her latest CD is Beautiful Seed. It is something that anybody in need of a helping hand or just a brief respite from worldly cares should check out. Corrinne May offers strength, Call my name/ Let me be an answer/ cause it hurts me to see you this way/ I wanna ease your pain/ Help me understand/ Let me be your shelter my friend, she says in Shelter.

See how she encourages trust in the title cut, Every hope/ every power/ lies in the heart of a seed that flowers/ Interwined all across the land/ We’re all seeds in the maker’s hands. See how she brings hope for the dejected in I’m not the easiest person to love/ But you, you’ve opened your heart to show me what I’m worth in On the Side of Me and in Scars (Stronger for Life), Break me open/ Tear me down/ Into pieces/ Broken crumbs on the ground/ you can mould and shape me/ in your image/ Breathe your life/ you know I need it/ Scars make us stronger/ Scars make us stronger for life.

I particularly like the way she imparts the message that no gift is ever too small with her take on one of the stories in the New Testament in Five Loaves and Two Fishes. So take my five loaves and two fishes/ do with it as you will/ I surrender/ take my fears and my inhibitions/ All my burdens/ my ambitions/ you can use it all/ no gift is too small.

Corrinne May has been blessed with a beautiful gift. Isn’t it great that she has chosen to share it with us all.

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And she has more. Corrine May makes the kind of music that gets one thinking about Christmas and I was glad to find out that she has recorded a Christmas album and it is available in the local stores. Titled The Gift, it is one of utmost simplicity with only a guitar, piano and a barely there percussion as accompaniment. It is however a wonderful showcase of Corrine May’s singing.

There are only two originals in the CD, The Answer and her own version of the old prayer to the Blessed Mother, the Hail Mary. The rest are traditonal Christmas carols, Silent Night, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard on High, What Child is This, Away in a Manger, O Come All Ye Faithful and one modern inspirational, Be Thou My Vision. Corrinne May makes each of them her own and the result is an album about what Christmas songs should be, an expression of joyful prayer.