GIGS
ABOUT
The Maes bring modern folk to life with lush harmonies and acoustic mastery on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo. Born in Victoria Australia, the sisters grew up emersed in a melting pot of music from around the world washed up on stolen land. The Maes are outstanding live, with engaging storytelling and spinetingling harmonies. The sisters draw their audience in like your sweetest and scariest friend. With echoes of Gillian Welch and The Waifs, there is a timeless luminescence and simplicity to the songwriting and sound of Maggie and Elsie Rigby.
As well as selling out headline shows around the country and overseas, their international festival appearances include appearances at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (USA) Edmonton Folk Festival (Canada) Orkney Folk Festival (UK) and Woodford Folk Festival (Aus). The Maes’ signature sound has led them to open for Iconic Australian artists Troy Cassar-Daley and Lisa Mitchell.
Their latest single ‘Loretta’ was featured on Rage in November 2024. The Maes self-titled 2019 album won the Music Victoria Folk/Roots Album of the Year and their song Driving Ali through Mining Towns was a finalist for the Vanda and Young songwriting competition. Their 2017, Nashville-produced album Take Care Take Cover also won the Music Victoria Folk album of the year as well as a five-star review from The Australian. Their 2024 single ‘Loretta’ was featured on Rage in November 2024.
‘The Maes folk/pop sensibility is alluring. I'm a sucker for harmonies and these girls cover this ground with such bluegrass perfection, it makes me realise so many styles of our music grow from the same old tree - we are merely branches away from each other.’ – Troy Cassar-Daley
‘I’ve always had such love for The Maes! Their timeless sound is always sung with such sincerity and emotion straight from the heart. It warms my heart to hear their music live and this latest album brings me straight back to that place, it’s superb. A big congratulations on some masterful songwriting and beautiful piece of work. I encourage everyone to have a listen.’ – Josh Teskey
Press
““simply superb sophomore album.””
““quite simply breathtaking””
““The Maes’ songs are powerful, the vocal harmonies soar, and their own instrumental prowess is impressive””
““…underscores the ever growing potential these girls have to capture a truly international stage.””
““Located at a crossroads where Australian, English and American folk traditions meet, The Maes are in the midst of creating something unique and very much their own””
Music
listen to loretta
Listen to Come Alive
The MAES
Out Now
The Maes’ upcoming self-titled record is a return to the sisters’ folk music roots. Gentle, intimate and conversational, the album is an unadorned showcase of Maggie and Elsie’s superb songwriting as well as honest, relaxed and stunning vocal and instrumental performances.
The album was born on a two-month tour of Europe and North America in 2018 shortly after the band changed its name from The Mae Trio to The Maes after the departure of founding member Anita Hillman. The sisters started the tour with a recording session in Canada, intending to make a four-track EP. Fired up by the changes in the band, inspired and bursting with new music they kept looking for new recording opportunities as the tour progressed. By the end of the tour they had two tracks from Nova Scotia, Canada, two songs from the Isle of Mull in Scotland, two songs from different studios in Ireland and four songs recorded in their home town of Melbourne.
Take Care Take Cover
Released April 13, 2017
Winner of Best Folk/Roots at The Age Music Victoria 2017. Take Care Take Cover was recorded in Nashville by producer and engineer Erick Jaskowiak and features guest performances from Darrell Scott, Viktor Krauss, Jano Rix, Maya de Vitry, Kai Welch and others.
September
Released September 2015
This EP was recorded in two days in the winter of 2015 and was released (unsurprisingly) in September of that year. It features candied performances of two original songs (both addressing the love between girl and banjo) and three covers from different continents: Dougie Maclean’s ‘She Loves Me When I Try’, Ruth Moody’s ‘Glory Bound’ and Lorde’s ‘Buzzcut Season’
Housewarming
Released August 2013
The Mae Trio’s award winning debut album released in August 2013 and produced by Shooglenifty’s Luke Plumb. Housewarming features 11 of the trio’s original songs and an a capella version of Kate Rusby’s ‘Lately’. Winner of the National Film and Sound Archive’s Folk Recording of the Year in 2014.
Media
