Singer and songwriter
Maia Sharp has a talent for passionate, emotionally honest songs about life and love that have won her a loyal fan following as a performer as well as the ultimate show of respect from her peers -- her songs have been covered by a wide variety of musicians, including
Bonnie Raitt,
the Dixie Chicks,
Cher,
Tricia Yearwood,
Lisa Loeb, and
Keb' Mo'.
Maia Sharp was born in California's Central Valley in 1971; her father,
Randy Sharp, was a songwriter and recording artist, while her mother,
Sharon Bays, was a college professor who taught anthropology and had performed as a singer in her younger days. When
Maia was four, her family moved to Los Angeles, and a year later the precocious youngster wrote her first song, "Ghosts."
Maia became proficient on a number of instruments, including keyboards, guitar, oboe, and saxophone, and later studied music theory at California State University at Northridge, where she began to explore her love of songwriting. In 1992 her father invited
Maia to play horns and keyboards on That's Another Story, an album he cut in collaboration with
Karen Brooks, and by 1993
Sharp began performing her own music in Los Angeles clubs.
Sharp was discovered by
Miles Copeland, who managed
the Police and ran I.R.S. Records in the '70s and '80s, and signed
Sharp to his Ark 21 label. In 1997
Sharp released her debut album,
Hardly Glamour, but Ark 21 was not destined to last long in the marketplace and she didn't cut another album until 2002, when she released the self-titled
Maia Sharp for Concord Records. That same year,
Sharp served as a backing vocalist and session musician on
Art Garfunkel's album
Everything Waits to be Noticed, as well as helping the famed singer set two of his poems to music. Three of
Sharp's songs would appear on
Bonnie Raitt's 2005 release
Souls Alike, and
Sharp was invited to play sax on the sessions. Also in 2005,
Sharp released her third solo album,
Fine Upstanding Citizen, through
Koch, co-producing the album with
Brad Jones as well as playing many of the instruments. In 2006
Sharp was back with album number four, Eve and the Red Delicious, recorded with
Darren Embry, and in 2009 she released
Echo, which was produced by
Don Was; the album also featured a guest appearance from
Bonnie Raitt.
By this time,
Sharp had become more deeply involved in studio work, producing
Edwin McCain's 2011 album
Mercy Bound and producing two new tracks for the 2012 release The Singer: The Very Best of Art Garfunkel.
Sharp would also produce sessions for
Donny Anderson, Jenifer Freebairn, and
Crystal Bowersox. In 2012,
Sharp joined her parents,
Randy Sharp and
Sharon Bays, as well as songwriter
Jack Wesley Routh, for a Western-themed collaboration,
Dreams of the San Joaquin; she also completed and released an album of her own,
Change the Ending, released on Blix Street. In 2015,
Sharp signed a new recording deal with Entertainment One Music and released
The Dash Between the Dates, which included performances from
Eurythmics founder
Dave Stewart. ~ Mark Deming