After the Spartan simplicity of Daisy May's debut, the one-gal-with-a-guitar Sleepless, this Michigan-based singer and songwriter fills out her sound just a bit on her second album, 2004's Heart Song. Joined by a handful of acoustic accompanists (including multi-instrumentalist Seth Bernard, cellist Andrea Moreno-Beals, Dominic Suchyta on bass and banjo, resonator guitarist Luke Winslow-King, and Drew Howard on pedal steel), Heart Song still possesses the same sort of elegance and clarity that made Sleepless so appealing, but the wider range of musical colors takes some of the burden off Daisy May's voice and gives these recordings a feel that's casual and richly detailed at the same time. "Sun" and "Simple Secrets of the Heart" use the subtle dynamics of Daisy May's band to bring out the finer points of the lyrics, and the results are wonderful, while the players display an admirable sense of restraint, never overplaying but using delicate washes of sound to add effective tonal coloring to the songs. Daisy May has remembered the wisdom of "less is more" even while adding guest musicians to her second album, and Heart Song is all the better for it.
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