In the Spring of 2000 a twenty-two year old Hutchinson completed her BA in Creative Writing, quit her job on an organic lettuce farm in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, abandoned her room above a chicken coop, and hit the road. She went on to win a New Folk Award at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, as well as 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. In April of 2001 'Against The Grey' was nominated for a Boston Music Award for best "Debut Singer-Songwriter Album" of the year.
Performing Songwriter calls Hutchinson, "...A master of introspective ballads filled with understated yearning and an exquisite sense of metaphor." The twenty-eight year old describes her style as "lyric-based, folk-pop, with a love of poetry, a whole lot of small town idealism and some manic-depression thrown in for good measure." Among her influences she is quick to include poet Mary Oliver along with the likes of David Gray, Patty Griffin, Greg Brown and Shawn Colvin. Her songs are characterized by a weathered but unselfconscious optimism, a love of language and of the natural world. Having grown up in a town of 5,000 people, "just outside the National Historic District," her songs possess all the charm of Lake Wobegon, tempered by a sweet and timeless voice.
The Boston Globe writes, "Meg Hutchinsons songs have a way of making us believe shes telling the truth, at least as she sees it. In a brooding sea of inscrutable urban songwriters, her whispery, knowable voice feels like its 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 lifes dark tunnels.
In 2004 Hutchinson released her acclaimed studio album The Crossing produced by Crit Harmon (Martin Sexton, Lori McKenna, Mary Gautier). She had been carrying Harmon's business card around for years waiting to get up the nerve to play him a few songs. In 2002 she moved to Boston and finally got her chance. Harmon offered to make a record. They say it took a year to record at his Medford studio but in reality it took nearly seven years and was well worth the wait.
The title track from The Crossing is a song about a bridge in Hutchinsons hometown that was mistakenly built higher than the surrounding road. Hutchinson says, I was working on getting over some difficult things in my life during those months. There was this small sign "pavement ends" and then you'd hit the bridge and be airborne. The songs on this album grew out of this work of getting beyond.
Meg has recently been signed by Red House Records. Her new album "Come Up Full" will be released internationally on March 4th, 2008 and she will be touring across the U.S, the UK and Ireland.
