Tracklisting
1. Hazy Days 2. Dreams Of The Forest 3. Under The Broad-leaved Tree 4. Mary Jane blues 5. Medley: i) Jig of slurs ii) Blarney pilgrim 6. Blackwaterside 7. In My Garden 8. 1970 9. Widerness Song 10. Glasgerion 11. Our Lady Babalon 12. Lagan Love
Reviews
"Mary Jane is one of England's newest psychedelic folk-rock sensations and their debut LP/CD "Hazy Days" sure fulfilled our high expectations. Southampton's finest delivered a debut filled with sparkling, delightful folk rock , ranging from standard Fairport moves ("Hazy Days", "Blackwaterside" and "Dreams of the Forest") via real fairytale-like folk anthems in the best Trees/Steeleye Span/Stone Angels tradition ("Under the Broad-leaved Tree", "Glasgerion", "Our Lady Babalon") to blues or rock-driven tracks ("Mary Jane Blues", "In My Garden"). Mary Jane play a very attractive mix of folk and folk rock featuring traditional elements such as acoustic guitars, fiddle and flute, but also distorted electric guitar, bass and rocking drums. And there is of course the pretty unique voice of Jo Quinn. She can sing in a full, melodic, typical folk voice but she has also mastered a strange, high-pitched tone that turns many a folk tune into a brilliant, slightly estranging experience. The CD version offers two bonus tracks: a medley of two instrumentals ("Jig of Slurs"/"Blarney Pilgrim") and the beautiful "Lagan Love", a song we knew from their last year's debut 7" EP "Hazy Days" is a very impressive first album, one of the best of its genre even, by a band who were completely unknown only a year ago. I wish them well and hope they'll be able to match this debut with many more albums of the same high qualities."
Crohinga Well.
"Mary Jane are an English folk-rock band... Musically they inhabit the dreamy psychedelia influenced brand of electrified folk music as popularised by "Unhalfbricking" period Fairport Convention, Trees and Pentangle. "Hazy Days" their full length CD kicks off with the up tempo title track and Jo Quinn's ethereal vocals recalling Kate Bush in places whilst Peter Miln's fiddle adds a Swarbrick influenced aura. The epic traditional ballads "Blackwaterside" and "Lagan Love" are given taut suspense laced readings while "Glasgerion" crosses Trees' acid folk-rock with grunge guitars and wins. Strong self penned material such as "Dreams of the Forest" and "In My Garden" allude to a fertile imagination and subtle grasp of dynamics making "Hazy Days" nirvana for psychedelic folk-rock devotees...Mary Jane are an acid-folk dream team...check them out ASAP.
John O'Regan
"Apparently defined by Joanne Quinn's high-pitched, almost supernatural voice, Mary Jane combine acoustic folk and electric Rock elements to a peculiar sound that might well give British Folk Rock a healthy kick up its bottom parts and push it back on the winning road after the first impact of people like Ron Kavana has been washed away. Working strictly within the electric Folk format (bass, drums, gtrs) plus an assortment of flutes, mandolin and fiddle, the band can well be regarded as a nineties version of Lindisfarne et al. as they stretch their feelers south, east and west. With a gentle, laid-back instrumental sound supporting Joanne Quinn's peculiar singing occaisionally reminiscent of sped-up comic film voices (yet free of any overt silliness a la Melanie), Mary Jane have acquired a sound that is outstanding as well as typical. With their ability to mix originals as well as traditionals they will soon establish themselves as one of the major acts on the Folk Rock circuit."
HJK in Hartbeat No. 19
