Cree Myles is a familiar name at venues like the Jazz Gallery and Company Brewing, but the singer behind that name, Maria Cree Myles, has spent the past year making her presence known citywide. The Alverno alum was just one of many highlights at last year’s “Prince Uncovered” show for Alverno Presents (performing “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore”), and an undeniable highlight at January’s Riverwest FemFest. Her YouTube channel is littered with acoustic covers of songs from the likes of Beyoncé and Sam Smith, but, until now, there’s been precious little original material. That changes with “Crave Me,” Myles’ first song and video.
Recorded and mixed in Chicago by Lon Renzell of THEMpeople, “Crave Me” begins as a jazzy, sensual-yet-playful track (“You’re cute, I am too / Let’s explore our choices”) before morphing into something more ethereal and deeply felt. All of it is highlighted by Myles’ full-bodied and gorgeously rendered vocals. Described by the singer as “embarrassingly vulnerable” and “written on a fleeting emotion,” “Crave Me” (and its accompanying video, shot by Tristan and Trayton White) is just that: naked, open, immediate. “I was nervous to release one song at a time,” Myles tells Milwaukee Record, “but if I wait any longer to drop a song, [my son] Ethan will be graduating from law school. He’s currently six.”
Yeah, let’s not wait that long until the next one. Watch and listen to “Crave Me” below, and catch Cree Myles performing at the Urban Ecology Center’s “Earthstravaganza” April 22; at Lux during Arte Para Todos April 23; and on The Morning Blend (!) April 25.