Premiere: The Ferdy Mayne, ‘Define My Name’

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The Ferdy Mayne
The Ferdy Mayne

The Ferdy Mayne is the musical vehicle for Shane O’Malley Firek, the itinerant songwriter who called Detroit, Nashville and Brooklyn home before cleaning up his personal life and moving to L.A. “Los Angeles is a shimmering object at first glance,” Firek says. “It is unreliable, similar to the unreliable dream of New York City, but I trust in the truth that you can sharpen the tools you came here with.”

His debut full-length “The Ferdy Mayne” will arrive in March, the latest chapter in a story that has seen the singer-guitarist play his outside-the-box Americana with some 40 bandmates, battle alcohol abuse, spend time in jail and finally come out on the other side. The single “Define My Name” shuffles in from left field with a lyrical sense that recalls the likes of Lambchop or Bill Callahan: “Define my name, little Joan of Arc / Monk cherry tree, won’t you bury me? / I want it sticking out the side of my head / With the flower or the fruit / Define my name little casino hawk / Monk cherry tree gonna come after the dark / I want it sticking out my chest / I want to see it fly again.” Out of that stream-of-consciousness emerges just enough of the familiar to make the Ferdy Mayne’s world a place of wonder: a beautiful guitar solo, a pleading chorus, a spacey Western twang that makes you think now that Firek has ridden off into the sunset, there’s a happy ending somewhere in the horizon.

The album, the follow-up to EPs released in 2009, 2013 and 2014, is out March 24 via Greater Peaks Records.

||| Stream: “Define My Name”

||| Also: Stream “Pears and Asian Wine”