Maria Lynch - Time Between Times (Perl Records) Maria Lynch decided that she ought to teach herself to play the guitar after listening to the likes of Tracy Chapman and Tanita Tikaram. After years of apprenticeship gigging with bands in the South Yorkshire area, she has earned the stripes to cite these influences in the knowledge that she can stand comparison with justified sincerity. With a voice sweet to the Corr, Maria Lynch writes simple, affecting songs that have the earworms burrowing away with frantic glee. “Days of Sunshine” is a blast of heliocentric radiation. The laid-back shuffle of “Leaving” underlies a heartfelt plea to a lover to ‘stay with me’, followed by a gorgeously deflating ‘maybe’. If I hadn’t been told what a lovely woman Maria Lynch is, I’d suspect she had more than a little cynicism in her. Lynch is composing new material but while she does, use the time (between times) to check this gem of a collection. www.perl-records.co.uk Carl J. Next