Also in 2005, Sharp released her third solo album, Fine Upstanding Citizen, through Koch, produced by Brad Jones. Three of Sharp’s songs would appear on Bonnie Raitt’s 2005 release Souls Alike, and Sharp was invited to sing background vocals and play sax on the sessions. Buddy, Maia and the project’s producer Billy Mann were Art’s debut of turning his poems into songs.

That same year, Sharp served as a vocalist and session musician on Everything Waits to be Noticed, a trio album with Art Garfunkel and Buddy Mondlock for EMI Manhattan Records. In 1997 Sharp released her debut album, Hardly Glamour, but Ark 21 was not destined to last long in the marketplace and she didn’t cut another album until 2002, when she released the self-titled Maia Sharp for Concord Records. Records in the ’70s and ’80s, and signed Sharp to his Ark 21 label. Sharp was discovered by Miles Copeland, who managed the Police and ran I.R.S. In 1992 her father invited Maia to play horns and keyboards on That’s Another Story, an album he cut in collaboration with Karen Brooks, and by 1993 Sharp began performing her own music in Los Angeles clubs. When Maia was four, her family moved to Los Angeles, and a year later the precocious youngster wrote her first song, “Ghosts.” Maia became proficient on a number of instruments, including keyboards, guitar, oboe, and saxophone, and later studied music theory at California State University at Northridge, where she began to explore her love of songwriting. Maia Sharp was born in California’s Central Valley in 1971 her father, Randy Sharp, is a songwriter, producer and recording artist, while her mother, Sharon Bays, was a college professor who taught anthropology and had performed as a singer in her younger days. Singer and songwriter Maia Sharp has a talent for passionate, emotionally honest songs about life and love that have won her a loyal fan following as a performer as well as the ultimate show of respect from her peers - her songs have been covered by a wide variety of musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, the Dixie Chicks, Cher, Tricia Yearwood, Lisa Loeb, Terri Clark, David Wilcox and Keb’ Mo’. If you’re interested, please send us an email here.

Because this endeavor takes Edwin and Maia several days to create, there is a significant fee involved, but the value of this song that is uniquely yours to keep and share is priceless. It could be a song to honor a certain milestone or moment in your life, or a gift for a loved one to celebrate just how special they are. If you decide to have them write a custom song for you or someone in your life, they’ll spend time with you on the phone to get a sense of who you are, your story, and get inspiration for writing the perfect song for you.

Mercy Bound plays to McCain's strengths, and that should make him and his fans quite happy.A personalized custom song written and recorded by singer/songwriters Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp is the perfect gift for the someone that has everything. And it's clearly working for him, as this is as well-crafted and impassioned as anything McCain made during his brief run as a hitmaker, and he and his audience are doubtless happier with this than if he took a stab at Auto-Tuned pop. From the romantic introspection of 'The Boy Who Cried Love' and 'Sober' to the sly, easygoing funk of 'Strange Angel' and the folkie storytelling of 'Millhouse Girl,' this is Edwin McCain sounding just like Edwin McCain, unconcerned with musical trends or the whims of the larger audience as he does what feels right. With songwriter Maia Sharp (another veteran of the late-'90s AAA scene) as producer, Mercy Bound breaks practically no new ground for McCain, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing as the last man standing among his graduating class, McCain sounds determined to carry the flag for a sound he helped define, and he seems perfectly happy to do it. Perhaps he's not selling as many discs or filling the same number of seats, but Mercy Bound confirms his voice is still in strong shape, he's still writing with his traditional blend of heart, soul, and regular-guy smarts, and his mixture of rootsy light rock, singer/songwriter-inspired folk/ and soaring/ Southern-style melodies is working just as well for him now as ever. In 2011, Hootie and the Blowfish are a memory, while Darius Rucker plays the country circuit, the Dave Matthews Band has practically evolved into a classic rock act, Counting Crows are floating about in the ether, and Matchbox 20 is remembered as the band that spawned Rob Thomas, but unlike his rootsy compatriots of the mid-to late '90s, Edwin McCain hasn't changed all that much since Misguided Roses climbed the charts in 1997.

Edwin mccain mercy bound