Dent May grew up singing in local church groups, acting in school plays, and performing at nursing home gigs with a recorder choir
Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele
Jackson, Mississippi native Dent May grew up singing in local church
groups, acting in school plays, and performing at nursing home gigs
with a recorder choir. In high school, he wrote synthy power-pop with
his band The Rockwells while recording erotically charged novelty
tracks with friends on the side. After three unsuccessful semesters at
NYU's film school, May moved to North Mississippi where he helped found
the Cats Purring arts collective and formed a country-rock band called
Cowboy Maloney's Electric City. In late 2007, inspired by Serge
Gainsbourg and Lee Hazlewood, he began performing as Dent May & His
Magnificent Ukulele and released a digital E.P. of cheeky lo-fi tunes, A Brush With Velvet.
The title is a reference to The Partridge Family, episodes of which May
obsessively collected and organized on VHS tapes as a teen. His debut
album, The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele,
was recorded with Rusty Santos in May's home, a double-wide trailer in
Taylor, Mississippi (population: 300). He continues to perform with
Cowboy Maloney's Electric City, and recently began recording dance
music under the moniker Dent Sweat.