MAGGIE HERRON, Yesterday's Lives

A beloved institution on the Hawaiian club scene currently celebrating a remarkable 50 years of performing on the islands, Maggie Herron’s life and career are powerful testimonies to the healing power of music, a deeply heartfelt and intensely challenging journey now culminating in the release of her transcendent, stylistically eclectic ninth album, the perfectly titled Yesterday’s Lives.

In the wake of great tragedy and loss, music, so it’s said, can act as a powerful tool to help us process complex emotions, express feelings mere words can’t capture and provide comfort, trigger positive memories, create connection and navigate one of life’s most harrowing processes towards sense of peace and purpose.

Whether she’s entertaining at her longtime gig at Lewer’s Lounge in Waikiki or recording another wonderfully eclectic jazz album showcasing her dusky voice, exciting original songs and stellar arrangements of classics she performs live, Maggie’s life and career will likely be viewed through a prism of before and after the sudden passing of her daughter, soul mate and frequent musical collaborator Dawn just after the pandemic began in 2020.

Wrapping with a soulful, poignant and elegiac rendering of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” My Story in Song, the performer’s second album since the tragedy, found her sharing her full emotional story, the way she was processing her complex emotions and finding a creative way forward without Dawn’s physical presence. I wrote, “Some artists might choose to hide in their sorrow and use it as an excuse to retreat from their previously prolific ways. Maggie has decided instead to be vulnerable, chronicle her difficult truths and use her grand gifts - a dusky voice quite well suited for both melancholy expressions and lighter hearted, sensual musings, bright and incisive storytelling and sparkling piano playing – to impart the balance of grief and shards of hopeful light that infuse her day to day.”

Yesterday’s Lives invites us to experience the ongoing joys and sorrows of the Michigan native’s life while also cheerfully spotlighting the great veteran musicians she’s worked with as a way of positively reflecting upon her half a century living and performing in Hawaii. The most prominent of these incredible artists is bassist Dean Taba, her gig partner over the last decade whom she pays homage to with a slight tweak of the lyrics on her charming, lighthearted romp through Peggy Lee’s “I Love Being Here With You.” After a lively, improvisational piano, she sings: “I love the thrill of Waikiki and Lewer’s Lounge with Dean and Me.” The ten track collection includes many songs that the two have performed live together over the years, which they have truly made their own.    

The ten-track collection also features other local players who have been part of Maggie’s ensembles over the years. These include multi-instrumentalist Abe Lagrimas (drums, percussion, ukulele), Reggie Padilla (saxophone), Paul Lindbergh (flute), Duane Padilla (strings), Matt Spenser (bass), and most recently, Christina Sochor (piano), Sara Surprenant (vocalist) and Kris Fuchigami (ukulele). For the gospel tinged title track, she went outside Hawaii and asked Mark Kibble of legendary a capella group Take 6 to do the buoyant harmony arrangement and vocals.

Reflecting upon the album Maggie says, “One of the most fulfilling and thrilling parts of my life in music has been the songwriting, especially when collaborating with my daughter Dawn, and culminating in the recording process. Performing thousands of gigs in mostly small venues over 50 years with great musicians has demanded consistent self- discipline and focus, for voice and piano, with deep breathing and practice for hours. To maintain the physical strength for this schedule means attention to health and well-being. And though it has become more difficult into my 70’s, I see it as a welcome challenge. 

“Yesterday’s Lives feels like the most comfortable project I have recorded. I tracked my vocals and piano close to home on the Big Island and recorded with musicians I have worked with over the years in Hawaii, and a few of the players I have known more recently and felt drawn to musically. It was important to me to include these talented players and encourage their artistry.”  

Maggie’s eclectic, predominantly high-spirited repertoire offers an artful, deeply soulful blend of three original short instrumentals centered around different emotions (“Happiness,” “Hopefulness,” “Longing”) and seven adventurous re-imaginings of Great American Songbook and pop classics - all capped by the opening title track, the true emotional centerpiece of the album.

A beautiful, nostalgic meditation that reflects on the magnificent wonders of the past while bursting forth with optimism for the future (“I’ll still look forward to a life of surprise”), “Yesterday’s Lives” is an original she wrote with Dawn that was one of the last songs they were working on before she died. Maggie only recently completed the piece, and her inclusion of it here not only carries on Dawn’s legacy as a songwriter but serves as a testament to Maggie’s own mastery of heartfelt ability to capture intense, heartfelt feelings in song. It’s truly one of her most affecting original vocal tunes ever.

Though they are interspersed throughout the album to create unique moments of reflection and empowerment amidst Maggie’s classic interpretations, it makes sense to talk about her three instrumentals together as reflections of different facets of her life these days. Considering what she’s been through in the past five years, it’s simply glorious (and truly cathartic) to hear her express such joyous exultation on the peppy, fast paced and truly hypnotic “Happiness,” on which her whimsical piano runs are often doubled by Lindbergh’s cheery flute musings.

Not surprisingly, her rhythmic approach to “Hopefulness” is a bit more restrained and cautious, reflecting the step by step process of getting some of that back in her life after a time of darkness. It’s a lyrical, sweetly and breezily free flowing piece that feels reflective and daring at the same time. The final track of Yesterday’s Lives, “Longing” is a tender, aspirational ballad contrasting haunting darkness with an emerging spirit of lightheartedness, underscored emotionally by classically tinged strings. The sorrow’s still there but her delightful melody keeps on pushing to break through. Though Maggie has hinted that Yesterday’s Lives might be her final recording, the collective grandeur of these three instrumentals may prompt fans to request a full album of original instrumental expressions.

Hearing Maggie’s world-wise, magnificently dusky voice stroll with equal parts poignancy and ebullience through the seven classics on Yesterday’s Lives should give any of us who’ve never seen her perform live at Lewer’s serious FOMO – and an opportunity to imagine what it might be like to sit at that piano bar and revel in her magnificence as a vocal interpreter in person.

My favorite of these is her infectious, truly Hawaiian spin on “Here Comes the Sun,” a  charming, fun-filled romp driven by swirl of percussion and claps and the thrilling duality of Maggie’s vocals and piano with uke player Kris Fuchigami’s flights of fancy and plucky soloing. It should be noted that Sarah Surprenant contributes harmony vocals and Michael Surprenant contributes the infectious handclaps. Maybe I also love it because George Harrison’s song’s simple lyrics are about emerging into the light after a long cold lonely winter.

Ditto, her frolicsome stroll through “Singin’ in the Rain,” featuring the soulful sax of Reggie Padilla, whose happy go luckiness – embodied by Maggie’s lively piano solo – serves as a metaphor for somehow finding joy amidst the storms of life. Also hard to resist is the enchanting cool and bluesy energy Maggie brings to a church worthy rendition of Janis Joplin’s iconic “Mercedes Benz,” a showcase not only for her rich voice but also Christina Sochor’s soul-stirring piano. Yesterday’s Lives also includes her unique, bustling take on Jamie Cullum’s reflective pop-swinger “These Are the Days” (featuring a powerhouse sax solo by Padilla) and gorgeous, sparsely arranged “The Twelfth of Never,” whose lyrics were most likely penned for a romantic partner but here express Maggie’s everlasting love for her dear Dawn.