L.A. Beat

Toronto based singer/ songwriter Sarah Burton has an immediately appealing and cute voice, which takes you back to a simpler time of ‘60s coffee houses and freewheeling hippie folks.

Especially on her debut full length CD “Mayflower” which is  12 beautiful slices of folk based pop music, which sounds like a mix between Hannah Georgas and Zooey Deschanel from She and Him, with just a touch of Dar Williams and a smattering of the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs

Throughout there is tender upbeat acoustic guitar, some  softly played drums in the background, some pretty piano throughout. There is  some tasteful mandolin on one of the outstanding tracks “Gravity.”
 I love her stream of consciousness lyrics especially on “ How Good You Are.”

 And “Antimonogamy” has a great, catchy melody  and a Tori Amos feel, as she innocently sings “I’m gonna keep my options open, or I could tell you lies and tell you you’re the only one.”

She funks things up a little with “If This Is A Sin” and then slows things down with  “Gently” which features more gentle mandolin lines.

One of the many highlights is the rockabilly tinged foot stomper  “Lucky,” and not just because it includes a riff straight out of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”
 It is an addictive CD, with some very cool layers of instrumentation and Burton’s beautiful voice throughout.
 She ends the CD with an exceptional country barn burner “Don't Mind Do Ya Do.”
 She played the Slice, Feb. 9 for all of four people but deserved more. Hopefully she comes back soon.