Cyrena Wages

Who? You're about to have your mind blown. Just say Serena. A Memphis and Nashville veteran yet only in her mid thirties, Cyrena Wages has worked with producers like Mark Needham and Marshall Altman. (I heard of Mark through my Fleetwood Mac obsession.) Her school run – get this – was in a gold 1967 Cadillac. Life was never going to be normal. Who wants normal?

CW's first solo album, Vanity Project, is distributed independently by Cyrena herself in a successful mission to free herself of the unreasonable (unsustainable?) demands of the music industry. She has found out what all true creative artists discover: that the best way to strong mental health and commercial success is to get it out, whatever it is. Her mantra is that everyone needs to find their child within. Can you be the child you were at 10 or 12 before life got so difficult, so adult? "Trying to keep an artist from being an artist is like trying to keep a beach ball under water." Indeed. That was her dad talking sense.

I discovered Cyrena via her friend and co-conspirator Lilly Winwood, and both artists share a Nashville roots context with blues included for free. However they sound different and write different. Something they have in common is their commitment to the lyric and their ballsy confessional way. These songs all work without the music, as poetic stories. I love a story. Don't we all?

Vanity Project the song is fabulous but I found myself drawn towards two other songs first. Are We Allowed to Fall in Love is about a seemingly impossible romantic entanglement between a middle-aged man and a wild younger singer. In Carried Away she decides to send herself some flowers. She's happy to wait for the right guy and would rather be alone than with the wrong one.

Around half the songs have an explicit lyric warning although these are used sparingly and only add to the vibe. After listening to this on heavy rotation for weeks I feel like I just want Cyrena to be happy. These confessional songs reveal a complex, beautiful, talented, intense, wise beyond her years, musical genius, powerful singer, amazing dancer, charismatic stage presence... oh lord, could one man in Memphis just step up to the plate? If CW were happy, would the music stop?

I deleted a whole paragraph riffing on Are We Allowed to Fall in Love. Don't all older men want a beautiful singer to fall hard for them? I don't know what he was thinking. But I've got to know CW a very little bit these last few weeks. I think I know what she would like more than anything else. Yes. A candle, a book, a hot bath and some tea. I expect she's a coffee drinker but she'd love proper tea from a pot if she would only try it. I can recommend Americana, Don DeLillo's debut novel for the tub. Or maybe The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. And play a record by Emma Smith. You two girls have heaps in common. (CW I'll send you a signed Emma CD if you would listen.)

I seem to have let my mask slip a little there. I'm a pro. Back on the script. I will be running a CD giveaway of Vanity Project on Instagram/Substack in the coming weeks. This will only be open to UK followers. If you are in the USA then these discs are much easier to come by. I believe that the 2 discs I have to give away are the only ones to have ever made it to England. So it's a great time to follow me on Instagram and Substack. You can follow Cyrena on IG too. Her TikTok is really funny.

Listen to the extended interview below, where you can hear the OG Cyrena Wages in her own words. It gets emotional. Honestly with a name like that you would never use a stage name. She's a Wages. Plural. Many souls in one earthly body. If you watch to the end there is a perfect live performance. I think the best segment is on mental health, especially around 12 minutes in. She talks about the advantage of having hit rock bottom.

A real rock bottom tends to be quite public which makes it impossible to hide from friends and family. And once they know the real you, even if you didn't really want to reveal yourself, it can be liberating. The bounce back might not be permanent but you know if you bounced once you can bounce twice, three times. Wise beyond her years. Cyrena could easily go mainstream. She's doing all the right things. But I would prefer her to remain our little secret.

Cyrena Responds via Instagram

[This is...] a brand new thoughtful and funny article on the last year (years) of my career by Paul Dettmann. Well @crimeguyuk, you were right, I’m a coffee girl (which I spit out at “I just want Cyrena to be happy”), but I’d have a proper tea with you anytime. You do your research (cue my photo choice, me fully clothed in a tub drinking from a glass) and I thank you for spreading the good word in the UK and for the kindness of your beautifully written review. Rest assured, I am an Aquarius, and therefore yes, I’ll always be a secret in one way or another. 😉 💘

Dettmann Responds to Cyrena

WAS I WRONG? Cyrena is always right.