Meg Hutchinson

One of the best new artists I saw at Folk Alliance this year was Meg Hutchinson. Of course, being that I'm from Seattle, everyone I ran into from the East Coast already knew and loved her work. Sometimes, we on the West Coast take a little longer to catch on, but I'm glad I ran into her. Hutchinson's work calls to mind other great New Englanders like Kris Delmhorst and Dar Williams (who now lives in New York), as well as the crafty poetics of Greg Brown and the observational narratives of Joni Mitchell. Those are all pretty awesome artists to be compared to, but Meg has definitely earned the comparison. - Kim Ruehl, About.com

Hutchinson's voice -- a marvelous instrument with just a slightly sandpapered edge to it -- achieves an uncommon sense of intimacy, nicely balancing with the polished (but not too-polished) musical backing, embracing arrangements and Hutchinson's own introspective but optimistic ballads. - Albany Times Union, March 6, 2008, Greg Haymes

In Meg Hutchinson’s universe, there is no useful distance between the personal and the political. Her honey-husk voice sings about the Iraq war and her own reawakening from depression with the same troubled intimacy. On a new album, ‘‘Come up Full,’’ beautifully soft-spoken melodies commiserate with searching lyrics that are all the more convincing for their uncertainty. - The Boston Globe, March 8, 2008, Scott Alarik

I keep hearing people say that no one writes good songs anymore. Then, when a “good” one comes out, it gets treated like an anomaly. Well, Meg Hutchinson knows how to write a tune. The multi-talented Boston, Massachusetts entertainer has won quite a few songwriting awards, but the proof is in the music. You’ll find it by listening to Come Up Full, Ms. Hutchinson’s collection of organic, poetic narratives, each one communicating the singer-songwriter’s keen and descriptive observations of life, love, and loss. Hutchinson puts her degree in creative writing to good use, crafting metaphors based on nature to convey the truths of her experience. She’s got mountains, stars, fishing nets, birds, and feathers working on her behalf, but it never sounds trite. That’s a singular feat, considering her reworking of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that makes me forget how high the original song ranks on my list of least favorites. Her voice brings everything together, a full and smoldering instrument in the same range as Alana Davis and Norah Jones. - PopMatters UK Magazine, March 6, 2008, Quentin B. Huff

It's not hard to understand why Meg Hutchinson was chosen to receive the 2000 New Folk Award at this year's Kerrville Folk Festival. 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. On "Against The Grey" her second CD, the Massachusetts-based Hutchinson frames diary-esque ruminations in a candlelit world that at times brings to mind a more ethereal Tracy Chapman, and other times evokes a more wistful Natalie Merchant. Produced with a light touch by gifted multi-instrumentalist Robby Baier, "Against The Grey" centers on Hutchinson's strummed acoustic guitar and warm, throaty soprano, with occasional splashes of cello, keyboards, sitar and accordion providing subtle embellishments. High points on the CD include the gently soaring "Over in a Barrel," the harmony-rich "Girl's Song," (which features Hutchinson singing a duet with her sister Tessa), and the nakedly romantic "Run Away." Indeed, when Hutchinson sings, on the latter song, that "love's the impossible habit to break," she's essentially voicing the theme that runs throughout this fine collection." - Performing Songwriter

"Brilliant metaphors - both musical and lyrical - abound throughout Against The Grey as Hutchinson asserts her fierce, probing intelligence and touching curiosity about the vagaries of the human heart . . . it is understated, intelligent folk at its finest." - Metroland

"Hutchinson's album "Against the Grey" will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Ani Difranco, as well as Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant, Jonatha Brooke and a host of others, but ultimately Hutchinson is an original from beginning to end. Her slinky, soulful vocals float naturally through the octaves, from a low vibrato to a high falsetto, and her melodies are well-rounded and matched to her profusely poetic and observant, gyno-centric love songs and ballads.
- Berkshires Week

Meg Hutchinson's songs have a way of making us believe she's telling the truth, at least as she sees it. 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 (one of her songs asks, "Have you seen the way trees grow around barbed wire?"). Her stage presence is poet-smart and slumber-party friendly, which should make for good medicine in gray January. - by Scott Alarik, The Boston Globe, Jan 13th 2005

Meg Hutchinson has come a long way from working at a vegetable stand and living above a chicken coop in upstate New York to the sophisticated folk-pop shine of The Crossing. Produced by Crit Harmon (Martin Sexton, Susan Werner), this collection finds her expanding beyond the candlelit ambiance of her previous recordings with more outwardly rocking arrangements and a notable polish that stops just shy of going over the top. For those accustomed to hearing her in a sparser setting, these busier arrangements might seem overpowering at first listen. But Hutchinson holds her own in the mix, especially on the opening "Coming Up," which heralds the arrival of spring, with a driving rhythm section and multi-instrumental contributions from Harmon. The tastefully programmed "Leonids" lends itself well to her offbeat singing (a reedy-sounding Natalie Merchant mixed with a dash of something all her own); the passive chanting that’s woven through "San Andreas" is mesmerizing, built around a metaphor about earthquakes and fault lines. And the carefree abandon of "More" is contagious, further evidence that at The Crossing, Hutchinson is headed in the right direction.
BY CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY - Boston/Providence/Portland Phoenix - Jan 7-13, 2005