"Maud is a wonderful singer. I like her angelic, peaceful way of portraying a song. And she has excellent taste in material. I congratulate her on her stellar CD!"
--Meredith D'Ambrosio, jazz vocalist, musician, composer, and visual artist
"Love's Refrain features the singer Maud Hixson, new to me. She has a calm, restrained, sweet delivery, and her enunciation is letter-perfect. Where others of her generation ornament their performances with percussion and horns, she stays out in the open, with only Rick Carlson's empathic piano as her colleague. Her time is good, her voice pleasing. And the standards she has selected are valuable--a few surprises amid the monuments of Tin Pan Alley. I have often written snidely of singers who emoted through every song, who took their efforts at top volume, registering high numbers on a Jazz Richter scale. Hixson does neither of these things, and her CD is a pleasure to listen to."
--Michael Steinman, Cadence Magazine
"There seems to be a disproportionate number of really good female vocalists in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Well, that’s the way it looks from my vantage point, a few hundred miles away. And to my list, I’ll add Maud Hixson. Covering what we call the American Songbook is easy in one way. You know the material is good. But it was good for somebody else, too. And somebody after that, and somebody after that. Quick. 'Over the Rainbow'. Judy Garland, right? 'Fly Me To The Moon'. Frank. But if you choose the material carefully, your imprint can become the new one. Ms. Hixson, I think, has successfully nibbled around the edges in her choice of material. With only a piano (a lightly swinging Rick Carlson) for backup, Ms. Hixson’s voice is front and center. The choices are familiar, but not immediately so, and the mark she leaves is delicate, and crystalline, and pure. Mr. Carlson and Ms. Hixson create an intimacy, and through ten tracks, never break the spell. Cool, but never detached. Hard to get, maybe. Her voice draws you in, always closer. Closer. My favorites include Van Heusen’s 'Here’s That Rainy Day', along with Hoagy Carmichael’s 'Stardust', and a rarer Harold Arlen tune, 'Bad For Each Other'. Judging from her website, Ms. Hixson stays busy performing around her native Twin Cities area. No wonder. Good stuff? Yes. And very highly recommended. Three and one-half stars out of four."
--Doug Boynton, GirlSingers.org
"Lauded as a female Chet Baker because of her unadorned ‘cool’ approach to the standard song, Hixson brings a measure of hip sophistication to the jazz tradition. With golden-hued clarity, great diction and the fabulous accompaniment of pianist Rick Carlson, this pretty Minnesotan tackles familiar gems and rarely recorded pieces such as Billy Strayhorn’s 'Lotus Blossom' and J. Russell Robinson’s 'Meet Me at No Special Place'. One would hope that Love’s Refrain and her earlier release, Small Batch, will propel her out of the prairies into greater orbits or renown."
--John Stevenson, EJazzNews
"The folks in Minnesota also have a singer who will raise the eyebrows of admiration of anyone lucky enough to hear her. Maud Hixson had escaped my radar until Love’s Refrain arrived in the mail. Accompanied by the piano of Rick Carlson, Hixson performs a program of ten wonderful songs. She mixes standards such as 'With a Song in My Heart,' 'A Ghost of a Chance,' 'Here’s That Rainy Day,' 'Remind Me,' 'Stardust' and 'Lucky to Be Me' with some tunes that do not turn up on many collections like Bob Dorough’s 'There’s Never Been a Day,' the hip 'Meet Me at No Special Place,' popularized by Nat Cole, a rarity from Harold Arlen and Carolyn Leigh, 'Bad for Each Other,' and Billy Strayhorn’s 'Lotus Blossom,' with a lovely lyric by Roger Schore and Carol Sloane. Hixson has a crystal clear instrument that caresses each lyric with sensitivity and understanding. Carlson’s piano sets each of Hixson’s vocals beautifully. This is one of those albums that you simply cannot hear enough."
--Joseph Lang, Jersey Jazz
"Thoughtful, subtle, sophisticated music."
--Pamela Espeland, MinnPost
"I love her version of Lotus Blossom. She has a lovely voice, one that seems to snuggle up beside a listener as it insinuates itself into the heart of a song. In that regard, she reminds me of the late and much missed singer, Nancy Lamott. Rick Carlson's accompaniments are beautifully understated (he's not a busy pianist) and seem perfectly 'right.' They're a remarkable team."
--Roger Schore, lyricist
"Just before Christmas last year, the jazz Santa brought Twin Cities listeners the finest homegrown vocal CD of 2007 -- Maud Hixson and Rick Carlson's beautiful, understated, timeless duets collection, Love's Refrain. Piano + voice + Great American Songbook = romance, with a capital L."
--Tom Surowicz, Minneapolis StarTribune
'Love’s Refrain' is a delectable new CD of intimate Great American Songbook duets by understated singer Maud Hixson and her chapeau-sporting hubby, the ever-eloquent Basie-loving pianist Rick Carlson. Hixson manages to be sultry yet never vampish. She grabs the listener early and often, but always in a conversational manner, always in the service of the lyric. If you’re looking for belting or scatting, go elsewhere. Carlson’s piano accompaniment is similarly devoid of flash - sensitive always, sublime often. 'Love’s Refrain' is a timeless album..."
--Tom Surowicz, Minneapolis StarTribune
Jazz Police Pick of Favorite Recordings of 2007:
"Not many vocal issues in the Twin Cities this past year but quality trumps quantity any day, and Maud, with the understated piano of husband Rick Carlson, provides one of the most intimate recordings imaginable, a subtle dialogue that nearly makes you feel like an intruder overhearing a private conversation."
"The new recording is a perfect reflection of Maud Hixson—-filled with beautiful melodies and enticing lyrics, yet generally avoiding the blockbusters of the Great American Songbook in favor of equally classic but less-often-sung gems from some of the most admired songwriters of the 20th century. She covers Rodgers and Hart, Bob Dorough, Bing Crosby, Harold Arlen, Van Heusen and Burke, Kern and Fields, Strayhorn and Bernstein, and of course Hoagy Carmichael’s 'Stardust,' which provides the snippet of lyric for the title. Each track is a straightforward, gentle swing that pulls the listener inside a warm embrace created by Maud and Rick; it’s a set of ten private moments expanded ever so slightly by our presence.
Without a note of pretension, Maud’s voice on Love’s Refrain is pleasing and airy; she’s a gentle balladeer. The recording could easily be titled 'Maud’s Restraint' as it is her understatement that seduces. As the last note dissipates, you can’t help but feel that you have spent the last 40 minutes eavesdropping on an intimate conversation between confidantes, where nuance replaces explicit statement. The power of this music is derived from the quiet delivery of words in melodic wrapping."
--Andrea Canter, Jazz Police
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