Biography
Growing up in Big Rapids, Michigan, May Erlewine has established herself as a contemporary folk singer and songwriter whose reflective, socially aware compositions have built a substantial and expanding audience across the Midwest and well beyond. Born into a musically inclined household, she counted among her relatives a father who played in the influential Michigan blues-rock band the Prime Movers and an uncle known as a skilled luthier. Homeschooled from an early age, Erlewine learned guitar, violin, and piano as a child while absorbing an array of styles—blues, traditional folk, R&B, bluegrass, and rock and roll among them—that would later surface in her own material. In her teenage years a growing urge to explore led her to hitchhike the length of the country, performing for strangers she met and sharpening her craft as both singer and entertainer.
She first crossed paths with Samuel Seth Bernard at the 2003 Ann Arbor Folk Festival, where mutual musical and personal rapport quickly developed. Erlewine soon joined the Earthwork Collective, a circle of kindred artists tied to Michigan’s Earthwork Farm, and made her first recording for the group’s Earthwork Music label. Issued under her childhood nickname Daisy May, the debut album Sleepless appeared as a predominantly solo acoustic set that showcased her robust, richly melodic voice; the 2004 release Heart Song brought in several fellow Earthwork Collective musicians. A first joint project with Bernard followed in 2006 under the straightforward title Seth Bernard and Daisy May, and in 2007 she delivered her third solo album, Mother Moon.
An active environmental advocate and educator, Erlewine wrote and recorded the 2007 song “A Letter from Downstream,” which protested sulfide mining in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and was performed at a special concert for Governor Jennifer Granholm. The year 2008 proved especially active: she released her fourth solo album, Snow Songs, traveled to Mexico with Bernard to lead educational workshops alongside indigenous Mayan musicians, and began appearing under her given name, May Erlewine. A second collaborative album, recorded that year with Bernard, reached the public in 2009 through Earthwork as Welcome Back, credited to Samuel Seth Bernard and May Erlewine.
She first crossed paths with Samuel Seth Bernard at the 2003 Ann Arbor Folk Festival, where mutual musical and personal rapport quickly developed. Erlewine soon joined the Earthwork Collective, a circle of kindred artists tied to Michigan’s Earthwork Farm, and made her first recording for the group’s Earthwork Music label. Issued under her childhood nickname Daisy May, the debut album Sleepless appeared as a predominantly solo acoustic set that showcased her robust, richly melodic voice; the 2004 release Heart Song brought in several fellow Earthwork Collective musicians. A first joint project with Bernard followed in 2006 under the straightforward title Seth Bernard and Daisy May, and in 2007 she delivered her third solo album, Mother Moon.
An active environmental advocate and educator, Erlewine wrote and recorded the 2007 song “A Letter from Downstream,” which protested sulfide mining in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and was performed at a special concert for Governor Jennifer Granholm. The year 2008 proved especially active: she released her fourth solo album, Snow Songs, traveled to Mexico with Bernard to lead educational workshops alongside indigenous Mayan musicians, and began appearing under her given name, May Erlewine. A second collaborative album, recorded that year with Bernard, reached the public in 2009 through Earthwork as Welcome Back, credited to Samuel Seth Bernard and May Erlewine.
Albums
