Contacts - Meg Hutchinson

“In Meg Hutchinson’s universe, there is no useful
distance between the personal and the political.”
- The Boston Globe
MEG HUTCHINSON
Called a “master of introspective ballads” (Performing Songwriter), award-winning acoustic songwriter Meg
Hutchinson brings a poet’s sensibility to everyday scenes, painting a vivid picture of the way America lives
today, giving us her most political and personal album to date – THE LIVING SIDE.
Meg Hutchinson takes us on a musical journey deep within her life, where we see our own lives reflected back
at us. As master songwriter John Gorka says, “After you hear Meg, you feel you’ve been somewhere.” Turning
her poet's eye toward these uncertain times with that same honest, closely observed perspective from which
she charts her most intimate songs, she asks the questions that plague all of us. “I think of this album as a
conversation,” Hutchinson says. “These songs are full of questions, and I've tried to leave space for the listeners
to answer.”
Hutchinson's songs begin with vivid, naturalistic images, of apple orchards and trailer parks, stark factory towns
and the Statue of Liberty. But she is guiding us to more intimate places, exploring how we feel in this time of fast
and frightening change. The album begins with “Hard to Change,” a song about our struggle to unplug from
our high-tech gadgets and more fully connect with each other.
“I grew up in the country without a TV or internet," Hutchinson says. “There were so many quiet hours in the day.
So many spaces between events. We have forgotten how to be alone in our thoughts. All the best work
comes out of that rich stillness of waiting."
Whether singing about technology, billion dollar bailouts or global warming, Meg Hutchinson makes these big
issues personal by showing how they affect our everyday lives. She goes beyond the casual observation of
current events and explores the emotion behind the experiences, bringing thc characters’ inner lives out into
the open, as is evident in the tracks “Being Happy” and “Gatekeeper.”
These songs were brought to life with the help of veteran producer Crit Harmon (Lori McKenna, Mary Gauthier,
Martin Sexton), who worked with Hutchinson on her last critically acclaimed album COME UP FULL. “When Meg
brought me these songs, I heard something new in every listen,” says Harmon. “I wanted the recordings to
have that same element of discovery. It was a challenge to create a soundscape as thoughtfully woven
together as Meg's songs. Meg's singing is captivating.” Keeping Hutchinson’s vocals at the center of the
recording, Harmon brought in some of New England’s best and busiest session players including Kevin Barry
(guitars), Richard Gates (bass), and Brad Hatfield (keyboards, string arrangements). With moody wurlitzer and
lush strings, THE LIVING SIDE is cinematic and hopeful – a hypnotic musical ourney that takes on new
emotional meaning with every listen and encourages us to choose the living side.
Currently touring in support of the new album, Meg Hutchinson will also be showcasing at South By Southwest
(SXSW) and International Folk Alliance Conference. For her full tour schedule, visit www.meghutchinson.com.
Contacts
MANAGEMENT & MARKETING
Michelle Conceison
Market Monkeys
michelle@marketmonkeys.com
P 617.233.1893
F 617.507.6047
LABEL, PUBLICITY & RADIO
Ellen Stanley
Red House Records
promotions@redhouserecords.com
P 651.644.4161
F 651.644.4248
BOOKING
Lori Peters
Mad Mission Agency
lori@madmissionagency.com
P 413.268.3398
F 413.727.8026
IRELAND & UK
Sheena Keane
Blue Grace Music
bluegracemusic@googlemail.com
P/F +(353) (0)766025282
M +(353) (0)873245092
Skype - keanestofsheens
ON THE WEB
Official Site - meghutchinson.com
Press Kit - meghutchinson.com/promo
Facebook - facebook.com/meghutchinson
MySpace - myspace.com/meghutchinson
Twitter - twitter.com/hutchtweets
QUOTES
NEW ALBUM
“organic, poetic narratives, each one communicating the
singer-songwriter’s keen and descriptive observations of life, love
and loss”
- PopMatters
“one of those works that quietly gets under your skin...nakedly intimate
lyrics, and muted, bittersweet melodies”
- Dirty Linen
“A master of introspective ballads filled with understated yearning and an
exquisite sense of metaphor, Hutchinson delivers her songs with a gently
affecting poetic grace.”
- Performing Songwriter
“Hutchinson’s refreshingly rancor-free compositions demonstrate that music
can be soft without being gutless.”
- Vintage Guitar
“This young Boston singer-songwriter compares favourably to urbane
American country-folk artists such as Mary Chapin Carpenter and Dar
Williams...and delivers her songs in a breathy alto wrapped around allusive
lyrics of melancholy and loss.”
- Winnipeg Free Press
“songs that keep running through your head long after the music’s
stopped...Hutchinson’s songwriting belies her age.”
- The Cape Cod Journal
“this lyrically-driven artist brings her soft and eloquent vocals to a series of
poetic stories...pulling at every heart string imaginable.”
- Out Impact
“In a brooding sea of inscrutable urban songwriters, her whispery, knowable
voice feels like it’s sharing her secrets with us. Set to elegant, free-floating
melodies that feel both modern and rooted, her lyrics are always seeking, if
not actually finding, hope at the end of life’s dark tunnels.”
- The Boston Globe
“Hutchinson’s falsetto vocal flights echo Joni Mitchell’s technique for
expressing the wonder of certain self-revelatory moments”
- The Bluegrass Special
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
iTunes Essentials - 2009
Best Female Singer Songwriter Album, Indie Acoustic Project - 2008
Finalist, Billboard Songwriting Competition - 2008, 2005
Starbucks Music Makers Competition - 2006
Winner, CMEAS East Anglia Tour in UK - 2006
Finalist, John Lennon Songwriting Competition - 2005
Finalist, USA Songwriting Competition - 2005
“Artist Most Wanted,” Falcon Ridge Folk Festival - 2005
Winner, Mountain Stage NewSong Contest - 2005
Winner, Reach Emerging Artists Ireland - 2004
Winner, Kerrville New Folk Award - 2001
Winner, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest - 2001
Winner, Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting Contest - 2001
The Living Side
RHR-CD-224
RELEASE DATE FEB 9, 2010
www.redhouserecords.com
DISCOGRAPHY
The Living Side
2010
Winterbloom
2009
Come Up Full
2008
True North (Single)
2007
The Crossing
2004
Any Given Day
2001
Against The Grey
1999
Meg Hutchinson
1996
MEG HUTCHINSON
BIOGRAPHY
Meg Hutchinson is an award-winning songwriter who artfully documents the human condition. With a poet’s ease,
she makes the personal universal, allowing people’s stories to come alive through her unique vocals and haunting
melodies. Since the release of her Red House Records debut COME UP FULL, she has won high praise for her
songwriting and has been featured nationally on NPR Music, XM/Sirius Radio and several times on the syndicated
show Mountain Stage. Publications like The Winnipeg Free Press have compared her songwriting with that of
veterans Dar Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Joni Mitchell.
Growing up in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, the woods and ponds were her childhood muses,
as were songwriters like Greg Brown and Joni Mitchell, and poets like Mary Oliver, William Stafford, William Butler
Yeats, T. S. Eliot and Robert Frost. When Hutchinson inherited her grandmother’s 1957 Martin guitar at age eleven,
her love of words found an inspiring instrument, and there was no turning back. “Songwriting is not something I
chose, I’ve just somehow always known that this is what I love to do. This is what I can’t help but do,” she says.
After graduating from college with a degree in creative writing, Hutchinson quit her longtime job on an organic
lettuce farm and settled in Boston. In between gigs at pubs, coffeehouses and train stations, she won a Kerrville New
Folk Award (2000) and was nominated for a Boston Music Award for her first studio album AGAINST THE GREY.
She went on to win awards at the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, the Telluride Troubadour Songwriter’s Showcase in
Colorado and The Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest in North Carolina, all in the course of a year,
causing national publications like Performing Songwriter to take notice, calling her “A master of introspective ballads
filled with understated yearning and an exquisite sense of metaphor.” She quickly became an integral part of the
vibrant Boston songwriting community. Like every great performer who has come out of the Boston scene, Hutchinson
took to the subway, performing in Park Street, Downtown Crossing and Davis Square stations–honing her chops in the
same method of predecessors like Martin Sexton, John Mayer, Paula Cole and Tracy Chapman.
After recording her live CD ANY GIVEN DAY in 2001, and continuing to build a fan base throughout the Northeast, she
went into the studio with esteemed producer Crit Harmon (Lori McKenna, Martin Sexton, Mary Gauthier) to
record THE CROSSING. Released in 2004, this album was enthusiastically received by critics and DJs across the
country, catching the attention of renowned folk/roots label Red House Records. Label president and veteran
producer Eric Peltoniemi knew there was something special in the young singer-songwriter, “Meg won me over with
the profound yet easy depth of her lyrics—rich words married to melodies I just can’t get out of my head.” Knowing
her songs could stand alongside those by Red House heavyweights Greg Brown, Eliza Gilkyson and John Gorka,
Peltoniemi signed Hutchinson to the label. Teaming up again with Crit Harmon, Hutchinson recorded her Red House
debut COME UP FULL over the course of more than a year in Boston. An instant folk hit, the album was one of the most
played on folk and college radio and landed her on many “best of the year” lists.
In 2008, Meg Hutchinson went on to tour with such artists as Lori McKenna, Martin Sexton, Susan Werner, Luka Bloom
and Joe Pug, handily winning over new fans on both sides of the Atlantic. She was also a favorite at South By
Southwest (SXSW) and the International Folk Alliance Conference, showing that this was a young talent to be
reckoned with.
In fall the of 2009, Meg Hutchinson joined fellow songwriters Antje Duvekot, Anne Heaton and Natalia Zukerman to
record the holiday EP WINTERBLOOM: TRADITIONS REARRANGED. A collection of eclectic holiday and wintertime tunes,
the CD features original and traditional songs from a variety of backgrounds–from a German hymn to a Yiddish folk
song to a midwinter Greg Brown ballad. Touring in support of the album, the four women performed concerts in 12
cities, making appearances on such popular stations as WFUV, WUMB and WKSU FolkAlley.
Now, with the release of her new album THE LIVING SIDE, Meg Hutchinson shows that she is a songwriter that has
fully arrived. Combining her raw storytelling folk style with tasteful, intimate production, the album showcases her
sweet, earthy vocals and her most powerful songwriting to date. It confirms that she is indeed one of the great voices
of the next generation of acoustic musicians.
In support of her new album, Meg Hutchinson will be touring across North America and Europe, and can be seen at
the 2010 Folk Alliance and SXSW Conferences. For more information about her upcoming tour dates, please visit
www.meghutchinson.com.
MANAGEMENT & MARKETING
Michelle Conceison
Market Monkeys
michelle@marketmonkeys.com
P 617.233.1893
F 617.507.6047
LABEL, PUBLICITY & RADIO
Ellen Stanley
Red House Records
promotions@redhouserecords.com
P 651.644.4161
F 651.644.4248
BOOKING
Lori Peters
Mad Mission Agency
lori@madmissionagency.com
P 413.268.3398
F 413.727.8026
IRELAND & UK
Sheena Keane
Blue Grace Music
bluegracemusic@googlemail.com
P/F +(353) (0)766025282
M +(353) (0)873245092
Skype - keanestofsheens