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Transcript

Miss Meaghan Owens is Live in the Lair on Max Ink Radio

Max Ink Radio · Sat Jan 27, 2024

Time now for live in the layer, presented by the Aaron Weber Group, powered by first

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Rocker, I see your special guest, she is just the cutest and all bundled up, because

you're just in white, right?

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah, Rob.

Yeah.

Well, Miss Megan Owens is an award-winning Americana Roots singer-songwriter who also performs

traditional Irish and Hawaiian songs in their native tongues.

She is a Wisconsin farmer and herbalist.

Miss Owens is an avid protector of the land, earth and water, using songs to keep people

connected on a positive level to local foods and music.

Miss Megan Owens, welcome to live in the layer on Max Ink Radio.

I'm so happy to be here, rocker.

Double happy.

Oh, thank you.

Now, you drove through some major fog, you said you were like hypnotized.

Yeah, last night after I played Bull Falls Burry last night, it was crazy driving down

to my, it took me like extra 45 minutes, I had to drive slow, then I just followed the

trucker.

There you go.

Follow the trucker.

Yeah, yeah.

Looking for a lighthouse and that fog horn.

Man, Anita won last night, yeah, for sure, even tonight, yeah, people need to be careful

out there.

You never know in Wisconsin, there could be like smoke from Canada, there could be like

18 inches of snow, there could be like massive amounts of fog in the middle of January.

Yes.

Oh, it's crazy.

Well, Miss Megan Owens, let's start at the beginning to really find out who you are.

You're from Stoughton, Wisconsin and you were raised in an Irish American music family.

Tell us about growing up.

Is that like growing up like in the sound of music or something?

It was a lot of whiskey, yeah, with a lot of whiskey, the sound of music needs a whiskey.

It's like her album here, No Whiskey, it's like the first song, right?

Yeah.

My grandfather was an Irish singer and he used to open up the St. Paddy's Day period singing

Danny Boy.

He was a very well-known, winning his day.

I mean, he died when he was 101, and that was back, like, 2019, right?

So I was really blessed to grow up with him and he took me back to the old country and

yeah, his brothers were in the house band in Barn Dance in Chicago, that old Grand Old

Opera Show.

Wow.

Yeah, and then he was, and then, like, they were champion Phillips was one of my relatives.

He was a county Mayo champion, fiddle player and it was just everybody sang and played

music.

My brothers were rock and roll indie rockers.

They started some cool bands and then my dad was in a rock and roll and so it got American.

It got rock.

It got rock and roll.

It's for me.

Are you young?

No, I'm just the smallest.

So tell us how you got involved in music.

Did you start playing guitar or was it, you know, did your brothers have a guitar where

you're trying to join their band?

How did you get into music?

I, well, we did have, like, a whole family band episode that I made everyone do because

I wanted to have a family band, but we always kind of were, but, like, we would do Owens

Family Christmas, like, sent for some years over in linaments in Milwaukee.

Oh, yes.

Yes.

Oh.

That's family.

So sometimes we would do that and they would, they would, like, do what I wanted to do.

Other times I would sing back up, like, for my brother, my brother started a band for

a while.

He was in it called Yaysayer.

They were kind of, like, a big indie rock band for a while.

Yes.

I've heard of them.

Yeah.

That was, like, he was on the first record and wrote a lot of those songs with those guys.

And so, you know, sometimes I get to sing when they're cool hipster indie rock bands and

then other times I drag them and be like, come on, we're going to do, like, a cool family

Christmas.

We can't chase them, so they were like, what the hell is wrong with me?

Did you make them dress in the right attire for it?

I would have if I could have.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, how old were you when you knew music would become really like a permanent part of

your life?

I don't know.

I think I just always had music in my life.

I was terribly shy.

I had a horrible stage, right?

And so I really, you know, wasn't till I was maybe in, like, 20-21 that I could even

get on a stage because I would have to be like drunk till, like, but I overcame that

pretty quick.

Yeah.

I realized, like, I was like, dude, like, it's a long road from here.

I don't know.

There's that much whiskey.

Exactly.

Line up.

You're like, okay.

I got two choices here.

I either quit playing music or I quit drinking.

No, I'm just kidding.

I did not.

I didn't quit either.

No, no.

I didn't.

I just managed it.

So, yeah.

No, but it's been really good.

Yeah.

So how did you overcome the stage rate?

What was the thing?

You know, I took voice lessons.

What could you tell other people?

So I took voice lessons.

Wow.

You know, and that really helped.

Oh, yeah.

We'll get to that.

Yeah.

So, and then also just, um, I went on a vision quest with a woman, a Native American woman,

and I did a lot of, like, deep spiritual work to be a list.

Yeah.

You know, stage fright's interesting thing.

Is that, like, in a dark cave somewhere or something?

No, no.

We out in the, we out in the field.

Yeah.

Oh, I took the bright.

The bright open air.

Oh, there you go.

Now, do you play other instruments?

I see you have your acoustic guitar tonight, but I play ukulele a little bit, and I play,

I don't know.

You know, I, I dabbled in accordion for a second, and then I realized it's too big

for me.

Yeah.

Tell us I have a child size.

I was a huge child size.

And then, then I, then I played, uh, like, like a tenor, like a tenor banjo, a little

bit.

I have a song I recorded in that.

Yeah.

But, you know, I, I mostly play guitar.

Okay.

But it's, I play guitar in stage.

Yeah.

Now, you were largely self-taught until studying voice under Yodora Shepherd at Ballot College.

Tell us about Yodora and, uh, what that meant to your craft.

Man, she was this, she was like a real diva from the olden days.

So she was in her 80s when she was my teacher.

Wow.

And she was fucking awesome.

And she just made me feel like I, I was actually a singer in like how to not be afraid.

And she believed in me so much.

She wanted me to be an opera, but that, that was not my intention.

But it was cool because I learned how to sing in other languages, which is what I really,

I love that.

Wow.

Yeah.

And she wanted you going to opera?

Well, she kind of, but yeah, sometimes, you know, yeah.

Because that was what she taught.

So, you know, I just applied those breathing techniques and the things I learned and how

to take care of your voice.

And when you have like an old school opera teacher going to beat you up because they kind

of slap you around.

And it's not like it is now.

It's like, I went to Catholic school too.

This is like, they're just going to slap you around in a nice way, you know.

I'm saying what it means.

Exactly.

And I was like tough enough to handle it, but like, but she, you know, lovingly slapped me

around.

And then, you know, you're like, okay, if I can handle this, like, I'm sure I can handle

it going to the open mic.

Wow.

I'm still trying to imagine you as an opera singer.

No.

You know, you hear all twisted up and stuff and I mean, I would wear the outfit for sure.

Yeah.

Well, let's get to some live music here in the, in the layer presented by the Aaron

Weber group.

The first song that you have for us tonight, it's called down here in the grit.

It's unreleased and tell us what it's like to be down in the grit.

Well, I'm going to, this is my shout out to all my farmer friends who are in the Midwest

grit program.

And that's just like what we're trying to do is reconnect the broken grain supply chain.

So everybody's growing grains and all kinds of grains in a regenerative organic way.

And then we're trying to reconnect to the breweries and the local, like distillery, like

rockervaca.

Yeah.

And, and the, there's one that's they reconnected a distribution chain between artists and

all bakery and Chicago and the farmers out in the rural areas.

So we're just trying to like make it more sustainable.

And so that, that's, I'm putting it out to them, but I also wrote this song when I was

touring all the time and I was exhausted.

And I thought to myself the other day, I was like, well, there's a huge connection between

migrant workers and musicians and farmers because we are the resource, like it takes everything

out of us.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Right.

And there's like a lot of times, not a lot of compensation, but it, you know, sometimes

there's great benefits.

Yeah.

But so I just, this is where all those people, you know, nice, and I'm missing an Irish

little bit too.

Oh, nice.

There's an Irish blessing in there.

Yeah.

The trend, you'll hear it.

May the people live.

That's the, what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Wow.

Well, let's hear it down in the grid.

Cool.

This is Miss Megan Owens.

We are live in the layer on Maxing Gradyo.

Where does us work, and other people like to live way out your suburbs with a big backyard

with a hat?

And I'm a little patched dirt.

MeIIing downease in the blues is in his ditch.

Me and just down, down here in the grid, so come on down with me down here in the grid.

Some people like to tilt the land with their industrial hands.

If they weren't for them, would I be slaves unto the man?

And I'd like to make a farmer knows a seed and it's worth.

You allow a children to inherit the earth.

Me and I ain't downease in the blues is in the ditch.

Me and just down, down here in the grid, so come on down with me down here in the grid.

Me and I ain't downease in the blues is in his ditch.

And I'd like to make a farmer knows a seed and it's worth.

I'd like to make a farmer knows a seed and it's worth.

I'd tend to pick up stories as I travel on my way.

And I don't know what to say.

Other times beauty makes me think the living day.

Grateful for a spirit that keeps this wild heart safe.

The eye ain't down as in the blues as in a ditch.

May I'm just down, down here in the grit.

So call home, down with me, down here in the grids.

And me I live out on the road and I don't mind when it's hard.

Traveling has a cold, it's a strange and subtle art.

And I wouldn't be nothing if there weren't for my friends.

And all the hands of strangers who helped me start again.

The eye ain't down as in the blues as in a ditch.

May I'm just down, down here in the grit.

So call home, down with me, down here in the grids.

Yeah, come home, down with me, down here in the grids.

May the people live in the shelter of each other's love.

I've got a hey, hey, love, I want in my day now.

The eye ain't down as in the blues as in a ditch.

May I'm just down, down here in the grit.

So call home, down with me, down here in the grids.

Yeah, come home, down with me, down here in the grids.

Wife in the lair with Miss Megan Owens.

Brought you by the Aaron Weber Group, powered by First Weber,

the most trusted neighbor in real estate.

Sell her by your home, move to Madison.com.

Seem smiling every time you say it, too.

Wow, that was just, that was incredible.

What a great first song.

Thank you.

That he liked it.

Oh, I'm glad you did.

Megan, you grew up.

I'm sorry.

There's so many microphones just talking to you.

I feel the same way every time.

Megan, you grew up in a musical family.

You studied with Udora and you set out to tour and perform.

Uh-huh.

Tell us about this era of your career touring and performing.

Well, I lived in Nashville at that time.

And so, like, there's a saying, a hundred miles from Nashville's a hundred bucks.

Yeah.

And it's true.

So, you know, I went down to the floor of Bama a lot,

that whole area between Pensacola and Mobile.

And I played all those clubs to all the tourists,

mostly to people from Michigan and Wisconsin.

Yeah, you tried to stop and play to them, right?

Yeah, it was hilarious.

And then, um, but lots of Southern places, too.

And then, I would come up here and play Dora County all summer

and different parts of Wisconsin in the Midwest.

And I had a booking agent for a while.

And, um, that was cool.

So, she would send me all around.

And I was really active with guitars for vets at the time.

So, sometimes they'd send me to, like, Utah or different places.

And I'd play shows to raise money for them.

And so, I was just all over the place.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then I sometimes go to California or whatever.

Wherever they pay me.

And you mentioned Dora County.

Um, were you playing up writing songs at the Sturgeon?

Yeah, Steelbridge for the Steelbridge.

Yeah, I did for, for many years.

Yeah, that's actually where this next song I'm going to sing.

That's where I met, um, the Benali family.

And they're, um, from the Navajo nation.

Um, and they live in Flagstaff, Arizona.

So, that's where I met them was at Steelbridge, actually,

because, you know, they bring together so many great writers.

Is that where you met Dan O as well?

That's where I met Dan Stoffel.

So, you know, they, he helped me produce my last record that, that, that,

this one, a bounty on my heart, this record.

Yes.

Yeah, that was fun.

Because that's where I saw you.

Dan Stoffel's was involved in, uh, booking a block party.

There was actually only a block away from my house.

Right.

And you played there.

That was the first time I ever saw you play.

I remember that block party.

Whoa.

Wow.

You never know, huh?

You never know.

Are you going to meet, like, end up in a fancy studio like this?

It's a small world.

Well, what was the most interesting experience on those journeys while you were, you know,

living in Nashville and touring and, and in the south?

Is, is there anything that really stands out?

Oh, just that I can't remember the order that anything ever happened in and where I met anybody.

Because people are like, what is it?

Why can't you remember anything?

I'm like, I can't remember.

Because it's just like everything's together, you know?

I guess just that people are awesome everywhere and people are not awesome everywhere until, like, you have to stay with the awesome people.

You have to find those awesome people and, like, just join forces.

No, that's a great statement, though.

There are unawesome people everywhere and awesome ones.

Yeah.

So you have to really, like, hone your, your intuitive skills.

Sage Advice from Ms. Megan Homes.

Tell us about being awarded a scholarship to the University Hawaii to study Hawaiian music performance.

And what it was like to completely change years and go to island life.

Yeah.

I was making a record in Nashville at the time that never came out because of a lot of unawesome things we're not going to talk about right now.

And so maybe someday that will happen.

And I played a show in San Francisco and then I went to visit my auntie to run away to take like a break from that project because it was getting really toxic.

And I ended up like telling God, like, or, you know, the higher power, like, I'm done.

Man, I can't run down the road anymore. I'm so tired.

I can't.

And then I woke up in the morning and I went to the grocery store and I'm at Willie Nelson's wife.

And then she says to me, and I didn't know who she was.

You know, she was just a really nice lady in the store.

We were both gluten free.

And then she's like, well, you just got to keep going.

That's just how it is.

I'm like, man, I'm sober out.

And she's like, you got to keep going.

And then she invited me a party and turns out I got to play on a whale boat with like Lucas Nelson.

And I'm like, it's Marty Dredd.

And I ended up like, I felt like that was a spiritual answer that I had been searching for.

Like, should I be done?

Because I'm kind of done.

And then it was like, no, you can't.

I went to the grocery store and then it was like the universe was like, no, you have to keep going.

It's like you're very Godmother.

Yeah.

Her name is Annie DeAngelo.

Yeah, yeah, she was.

She doesn't know that she answered my, my like, I'm quitting prayer.

But you know, then I stayed.

I went back.

And I, because I, because I once I had that opportunity, I played with all these musicians.

And then I, and then I went back to live with my auntie.

And then I just played five nights a week in all the clubs to Taurus, mostly.

But I started to learn about Hawaiian music.

And I worked in the music store.

There I taught music to a bounty music.

And this man came in.

And he was local.

And he's like, you should be in this program.

And I was like, no, I'm like a highly girl.

I don't, I don't think they'll accept me.

But they did.

And I was so blessed.

And then I got to learn the Hawaiian language, you know, from Kaila Donahee.

And he's like one of the leading, like, ethnomusicologists of Polynesian music.

And I met Uncle George Kahumoku, who is, you know, the amazing, slack key, five time Grammy winner.

He, he funded that to bring back the Hawaiian language and not let the language die.

And my grandfather was a native Irish speaker.

So like, I have it very close to my heart to not let these small nation's languages die.

Wow.

You know, so that's why I talked about it a lot.

You know, that was, I saw the, my heart connected there.

Yeah.

So how big of a change was it from being a Midwest girl to going out to an island?

I mean, I can't be outside without a lug, like with a sun shelter.

You know, because I'm so white that, like, I just burned with 50 on.

You know, so, you know, I had to be always under a tree or under, you know,

and then I also had to learn about 150 songs that my friends knew that were from the islands that were,

especially if they were native Hawaiian, like they knew these songs.

And so, but some of them, you know, not all of them, but there was a big bunch of songs in our repertoire.

You know, we would all help each other and support each other.

Wow.

Yeah.

Let's get back to live music in the lair with Miss Megan Owens presented by the Erin Weber group.

The next song you have for us tonight, it's called 1,000 Songs to Save a Seed.

I'm not even sure they've gotten to 1,000 songs to save the bridge in Sturgeon Bay.

No, they definitely tell us about this song before you play.

So I wrote this song with the, I wrote this song with the Benali family.

Benali family and they are a lovely band called Seahassen and Berda and Clay and Janita and Janita.

And we were very passionate.

When I lived in Maui, I was part of the non-GMO movement for Maui.

And we were just trying to advocate being able to have seeds sovereignty,

which would mean that you would be able to not, you know, have heirloom seeds,

have sacred seeds for a lot of indigenous peoples.

You know, like the Hawaiians have the taro, and the nabahoo have the corn,

and Ojibwe have the manoman, which is the wild rice.

So we were just talking about, you know, not wanting a corporation to patent

something that is for all humans for all time.

So that's kind of what the song was about.

And if we had 1,000 songs, then we could save those seeds.

You know, it raised awareness for it.

And they had just been with the Witty Guthrie archives.

They have been selected to like write music to someone Witty Guthrie's lyrics.

And so they were like really in the folk mode.

So we'll make a folk Witty Guthrie style kind of children's song.

Interesting.

Yeah, yeah, it was really cool. They're great co-hunters.

All right. Well, let's hear it. We have Miss Megan Owens live in the layer.

On Maxine Gradyo, we are local music.

It's one seed, one sound from our ancestors.

We carry on one drought, one storm on sacred land.

We plant our corn, one hope, one heart, one little dream is

how we start one tree.

Many roads spread its limbs and yields its roots.

The world is waking up.

Plant what you believe.

We got to keep this up.

We need 1,000 songs to save a seed.

Two hands, plant the rose, sun shines down our future groves.

Two little bees on the breeze, a pair of birds.

Spread the seeds to ears.

Hear your song, your eyes can see.

Right from wrong, don't be shy now.

Sing along, plant your seed inside a song.

The world is waking up.

Plant what you believe.

We got to keep this up.

We need 1,000 songs to save a seed.

Three of us take a stand, multiply us to save the land.

Any victory, bigger smile will save a seed for one and all.

The world is waking up.

Our plant what you believe.

We got to keep this up.

We need 1,000 songs to save a seed.

Live in the Lair on MaxingGradio.

We are local music.

Well, Megan, we're going to go to break in just a second here.

I would like to actually get right into another song.

Now, the next song that you have is called Bridge Jumping.

Tell us about jumping off bridges.

Well, didn't you ever do that when you were little?

No, maybe a little bridge, but I'm not.

Well, I don't know.

I grew up in the country and so people jump off bridges sometimes.

But you have to, for fun.

You have to go down there and make sure it's safe.

I'm just qualifying this.

It needs to be safe because you never know why I was there.

There could be a shopping cart or all kinds of weird stuff down there.

This was a song where I was feeling free after that horrible two years.

We lost all our gigs and the whole pandemic era.

And I started playing at Stony Acres Farm, which is a really freaking cool music venue up in Athens, Wisconsin.

And after the show, all the people that work there, so this is my shout out to everybody on Stony Acres Farm staff.

They make wood fire pizzas with veggies that they grow there and pigs that they grow there.

And they have a brewery where they grow the grain.

It's pretty freaking cool.

So I'll play there all summer once a month.

And this song I wrote about all the people that were there when we decided to jump off the bridge.

And I'm like, for fun.

Into the river, you know, because it was so hot that day.

Yeah.

It was so hot.

They're only open made November or so.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Well, let's hear it.

Okay.

We're back with Miss Megan Owens live in the air on Maxing Radio.

I just got to get myself in the right key.

Thank you.

We were rich.

Jumping in the middle of the night.

We were wide and free.

And after the growing moon night.

We were keeping promise to the red eyes.

We were free.

Setting on their programming.

I had a...

A thread about coming cool.

I had a...

A thread about take us home.

We were free.

We were teachers.

We were farmers.

We were priests.

We were charmers.

We were being poor.

We are.

We were laying out too far.

We all stood on that bridge.

Just to make the hood stitch.

Kept us tiller to the world.

We let our parachutes unfurl.

Just to frame our becasue.

By the ramp up and his wall.

By her, the rest got by the wee wool.

That ties by the water.

Just to climb the way back home.

To the truth.

We've always known.

We were brunch.

Champagne in the middle of the night.

We were wide and free.

And after the growing moon night.

We were keeping promise to the red eyes.

We were reeling.

Setting on that growing moon night.

I made the red.

This is Max Inc. Radio.