Megan King

Music For Memory Concert
5:05 PM, Sep 20, 2010


Written by
Kitty Smock
Marion

Hear vocalists Bobbie Lancaster and Megan King on Wednesday, September 29, at 7:00 p.m. at the Hancock County Public Library, 900 W. McKenzie Rd., in Greenfield. The singer/songwriters collaborated with 24 other Indiana performers on the “Music for Memory” project, a CD loaded with jazz, blues, pop, country, folk and classical music.

Mark Butterfield, who lives in Greenfield, served as executive producer. By purchasing the Music for Memory CD, Butterfield says, music lovers will support the Alzheimer’s Association of Indiana and, at the same time, discover new music from great musicians who contributed to this one-of-a-kind recording.

Bloomington songwriter Bobbie Lancaster’s modern folk songs deliver a full emotional experience with tragic tales and haunting melodies. Her style has been compared to Alison Krauss and Patty Griffin.

(Hear samples of Bobbie Lancaster’s music at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bobbielancaster3.)

Megan King has performed in Northern Indiana for the past 12 years. Her acoustic-based tunes appeal to traditional crowds while her modern sensibilities attract younger audiences. King knows music history and picks a mean guitar—a Gibson Hummingbird—through songs with structure and a point.

(Preview of Megan King’s music at http://www.meganking.net/music.html.)

“In my early 20s, I worked for a time in an Alzheimer’s unit,” says Lancaster. “When Mark asked me to be part of this project, it was another moment where life came full circle. I’ve seen firsthand the slow decline that Alzheimer’s brings, as well as the heartache that families experience. I’m so proud to be part of this album.”

“It is an honor to be a part of Music for Memory,” says King. “I have personally experienced the grief of watching the light of a loved one grow dim from the loss of memory.”

Register for this free concert, co-sponsored by Hancock Regional Hospital, at www.hcplibrary.org or call 462-5141, ext. 211. Come to the library’s Greenfield Banking Co. Community Rm. The CD costs $20.

Kitty Smock is Communications Mgr. for Hancock County Public Library. - Indy Star

8/25/2010 2:55:00 PM

The cover art of the CD that will benefit the Alzheimer’s Association. The compilation features music from artists from all across Indiana. Photo Provided.
Indiana Musicians Contribute To Alzheimer's CD

David Slone
Times-Union Staff Writer

INDIANAPOLIS - Mark Butterfield's father died about a year ago from Alzheimer's Disease.

He felt he wanted to do something to help fight the disease, but wasn't sure what to do.

His father, a World War II veteran, would ask Butterfield about his job, but never understood the music business he worked in.

One day, while Butterfield stood at his father's grave, he heard a voice tell him to do a CD. That was the answer he was looking for to help fight Alzheimer's.

Butterfield collected 26 songs from all across Indiana from different artists in various genres for a compilation CD. Five of the songs have not been released elsewhere. One of the songs is "Set Yourself Apart Son" from Kosciusko County's own Megan King.

Butterfield is now out promoting the CD, hoping to sell as many as possible to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association.

"I'm real serious about this because I have a personal interest in it," Butterfield said.

Butterfield isn't new to the music business. He's been in the industry for more than 30 years at the national level. He used to play with artists like Dan Fogelberg and Jackson Browne. He now is involved with the Indianapolis Acoustic Cafe Series, which kicks off its 14th year Oct. 30.

Another reason Butterfield wanted to do something for Alzheimer's is because he feels the disease may be in his future. Both his father and grandfather died of Alzheimer's.

Butterfield also knows a lot of musicians with ties to someone who has suffered from the incurable disease.

The compilation CD features everything from instrumental and classical to jazz and pop.

"It's been amazing," Butterfield said of making and selling the CD. "From this, musicians have told me their own CD sales have gone up."

The website to purchase the CD for $20 is at www.music4alzheimers.org The website features links to the websites of artists on the CD. Butterfield said 100 percent of the CD proceeds go to the Alzheimer's Association.

"What I wanted to do is something where everyone benefits," Butterfield said.

He first got the CD in the middle of June. After going to several music festivals, Butterfield has been concentrating on selling the CD.

Memory Walks for Alzheimer's begin in September. Butterfield plans to attend as many of those as possible to promote the CD. He's also been asking hospitals to help market the CDs to their employees.

Jim Irsay, the Indianapolis Colts owner, paid for the first pressing of the CD. Butler University allowed Butterfield to use its recording studio.

Butterfield came across King almost as if it were fate.

He said he went to Fort Wayne one Saturday and stopped in at Sweetwater Sound, and hung out for a few hours. While talking to a receptionist about what he was doing, he told the receptionist he was looking for some artists to put on a compilation CD for Alzheimer's. He wanted artists from all over Indiana.

Quickly, the receptionist wrote down 10 to 12 artists for him.

From there, Butterfield took U.S. 30 toward Winona Lake, having hung out in Winona Lake a lot during the summers.

On the way to Winona Lake, he stopped at a coffee shop in Pierceton. He saw King's CD and realized that it matched one of the names that the receptionist had given him. He circled King's name on the list.

Later, he searched for her online and found her website. After listening to her music, he said he realized how good she was.

"There's too many things for it to be a coincidence," he said.


Other cities represented on the CD include Fort Wayne, Goshen, Elkhart, South Bend, Lafayette, Carmel, Noblesville, Indianapolis and New Castle.

"I kind of covered most of the state," Butterfield said.

He said the Indianapolis Colts will help promote the CD during the Nov. 14 game. "That'll be neat," he said.

"I'd like for everyone in Kosciusko County to buy one," he said, "since it features one of their own on it."

On the Net:

www.music4alzheimer's.org - Times Union

Songs of Love and Hate (but mostly love)
Fort Wayne musicians pay tribute to Leonard Cohen

By Jim Fester
Fort Wayne Reader
2010-09-17

Last year, when Gary Doan started organizing a bill of Fort Wayne musicians to participate in the All Star Tribute to Leonard Cohen, he says that some of the performers worried that the folks on stage might out number the people in the audience.

“I heard ‘yeah, great, I’d love to. But do you think people in Fort Wayne know Leonard Cohen?’” recalls Doan, the director of Fort Wayne Culutral Affairs. “I said ‘people in Fort Wayne listen to a lot more stuff than you think they do’.”

Doan was right. Not only was the event — which marked Cohen’s 75th birthday — well-attended, but Doan immediately started getting suggestions about what to do for 2010.

Initially, Doan wasn’t too keen about doing it again; he feared repetition would turn it stale. But he got a lot of good feedback, and more to the point, after talking to some of the performers, Doan felt there was there was “unfinished business” from last time. “There were a lot of artists I approached last year who didn’t get the chance to do it, and really wanted to,” he says. “And some of last year’s performers wanted to tackle a different song.”

The 2010 tribute takes place on Sunday, October 3rd at Calhoun Street Soup, Salads, & Spirits. So far, the line-up includes Lee Miles; Megan King; Joe Martyn Ricke; The Afrodisiacs; The Mimi Burns Band; The Joel Gragg Trio; Jeff McDonald; The Tear Jerks w/Richard Reprogle and Kenny Taylor; with more TBA.

Cohen’s musical career goes back to the late 60s (he’s also a fiction writer and poet), and though he’s never really had a massive hit, he’s built up a devoted audience and a reputation as a songwriter’s songwriter, garnering the admiration of countless musicians. “He’s quite a songwriter,” says Mimi Burns, one of the performers at the event. “Very passionate. It reminds me of spirituality: you can ask a hundred people what they think the song is about, and you’ll get a hundred different answers.”

“He’s from the generation of spoken word, and I think that transcends in his music,” Burns adds.

Like we said, his albums have never sold loads of copies, but some of his tunes — or at least covers of them — pop up in movie soundtracks and other unlikely places. His song “Hallelujah,” originally released in 1984, has had a particularly eventful life; John Cale, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, and k.d. lang, have all covered it, it showed up on a West Wing episode, and just a couple years ago had another resurgence when it was performed by a contestant on American Idol.

With such a wealth of songs to choose from, performers had no problem finding a couple of Cohen’s songs to tackle, and Doan says he was somewhat surprised that there was no haggling or song swapping. “There wasn‘t as much of that as I thought there might be,” Doan laughs. “I think there’s two reasons for that, and the first is because Cohen has such a huge body of work.”

The second reason is a little more artistic. “All the performers on the bill are songwriters in their own right,” Doan says. “I’m sure that they’ve sort of latched on to certain songs, or felt an affinity for certain songs for whatever personal or musical reasons.”

And that really does seem to be the case. Lee Miles is performing “Who By Fire” and “Chelsea Hotel.” “I did ‘Chelsea Hotel’ last year and they asked me to do it again, so...” Miles says. “I chose to do ‘Chelsea Hotel’ because it's not only one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, but it tells a great story about a specific time in New York that makes me wish I had been there, or been Leonard Cohen, if you know what I mean...”

“I chose ‘Who By Fire’ because I love the lyrics,” Miles continues. “The lyrics are the big sell for Leonard Cohen's work as far as I'm concerned. He was a writer who turned to music to make a living, and his lyrics are light years beyond the typical ‘pop’ bullshit you hear out of 99% of musical acts these days.”

Megan King says that she was first introduced to Leonard Cohen through Jeff Buckley’s cover of “Hallelujah.” The first time I heard the lyric ‘it goes like this the 4th, the 5th, the minor fall, and the major lift/the baffled king composing hallelujah,’ I imagined David composing this song almost by accident, feeling the compelling of heavenly powers inside of it.”

King continues: “But Cohen takes it further by making it real, and human. ‘She tied you to her kitchen chair, and she broke your throne and she cut your hair…’ and ‘it's not a cry that you hear at night, it's not somebody whose seen the light/it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah’ At that point, I was hooked.”

King says when she plays out, she usually performs “Hallelujah,” but for the show she took the opportunity to look through her Leonard Cohen CDs for a couple more obscure gems, choosing "Dance Me to the End of Love" and "Ain't No Way to Say Goodbye." “I chose these two specifically for their poetic lyrics,” she says. “I love the way Cohen juxtaposes love with just about anything. His use of metaphor and simile is striking and heart wrenching.”

“He has an ability to trap you in his songs, and steal a piece of you. Lyrics like ‘Your hair upon a pillow like a sleepy golden storm’ and ‘oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone…’ I hear things like this, and I think... ‘this is why I write on napkins and on my hand and on the backs of takeout menus when inspiration strikes.’ It's these tiny truths that lay hidden and sometimes take a peek into our daily lives.”

Fort Wayne Cultural Affairs presents The Encore Performance of the All-Star Birthday Tribute to Leonard Cohen
Sunday, October 3 at 7 pm
Calhoun Street Soups, Salads, & Spirits
1915 South Calhoun
Performers: Lee Miles, Megan King, Joe Martyn Ricke, The Afrodisiacs, The Mimi Burns Band, The Joel Gragg Trio, Jeff McDonald, The Tear Jerks w/Richard Reprogle and Kenny Taylor and more TBA.
- Fort Wayne Reader

Destiny Rescue Works To Stop Human Trafficking

David Slone
Times-Union Staff Writer

Every 26 seconds, a child is trafficked, forced or lured into sexual slavery, according to Peter Everett, U.S. national manager for Destiny Rescue.

Approximately 2 million women and children are trafficked every year around the world, with 250,000 children trafficked in the U.S.

Destiny Rescue is a Christian aid and development organization working throughout Thailand, Cambodia, India and Mozambique to rescue children from prostitution and protect at-risk children, giving them hope and a future.

A benefit concert for Destiny Rescue will be at 7:30 p.m. April 11 at the C2G Music Hall, 323 W. Baker St., Fort Wayne, according to organizer Megan King, Warsaw. Tickets are $10 for the "Women with Destiny" concert.

Opening performers for the concert include King, Jan Krist and Sunny Taylor. Chic Gamine is the headlining act.

King said Chic Gamine is a musical group from Canada. The band, which includes four women and one man on drums, previously won a Juno Award.

Between the opening acts and Chic Gamine's performance, King said Everett will share what Destiny Rescue is and what it does.

King said the benefit concert came about after meeting Everett in the church worship band. He told her what he and his family did with Destiny Rescue. Krist asked King to do something to help.

King said she decided to call Taylor to help. Taylor works closely with C2G concert hall. She said C2G has an awesome music set up, and the venue brings in just-under-the-radar acts. They then were able to get Brad Etter on board for the concert. Etter is a booking agent/band promoter and was able to get Chic Gamine to perform.

Everett said Destiny Rescue was established in 2001 by an Australian, Tony Kirwan. It was started in Mozambique, then Australia. Kirwan saw that child prostitution was going on, he learned about human trafficking, and he decided to do something about it, Everett said.

Destiny Rescue expanded to Cambodia, Thailand, India and Burma.

Everett said Destiny Rescue identifies and rescues girls trapped in sexual slavery. Teams go into red-light districts and brothels, rescuing girls out of those situations.

"Destiny Rescues works on rescueing, rehabilitation and prevention," said Everett. "We also educate families in the areas where girls are targeted."

He said they make families aware of how girls are tricked into the trade.

Human trafficking is the fastest growing organized crime, overtaking arms sales, Everett said. It's second only to drugs.

Everett said he and his wife Barbie went to Thailand and visited Destiny Rescue two years ago. They then decided to get on board.

Everett officially opened Destiny Rescue USA in Syracuse. He said he's worked here for 12 months, trying to raise money and support for Destiny Rescue's projects. The Everetts speak about human trafficking and child prostitution and ways people can fight it. They are willing to speak to any church or organization about Destiny Rescue.

So far in 2010, Everett said, Destiny Rescue teams have rescued 18 girls out of brothels in Thailand. Rescues can take months of investigative work before teams can plan a retrieval. Once girls are rescued, Destiny Rescue offers them employment or an education.

"Destiny Rescue endeavors to give these girls back their identity," said Everett.

Everett said the youngest girl Destiny Rescue has rescued was 6 years old. She was saved from a brothel in Cambodia.

"Currently, we have 1,500 kids in our care. Two hundred have been physically rescued," Everett said. The other 1,300 are in Destiny Rescue's prevention program. "We do a lot of prevention. These girls are high risk."

Everett said the biggest thing anyone can do about human trafficking is to raise awareness.

"It's horrific," said King. "You want to pretend like it's not going on."

Everett said 27 million people are enslaved today. That's the most people ever in slavery, and that includes slavery and indentured servanthood.

Of Destiny Rescue, King said, "It's the real thing. It's not just some fundraising. It's going to do some really great things."

Everett said Destiny Rescue doesn't work alone. They partner with organizations like International Justice Organization, World Hope, SHE organization and Stop Child Trafficking.

American girls are not safe from human trafficking. Everett said there's a high demand for American girls. They are one of the highest priced in the world.

The average age for girls across the board to be targeted for human trafficking is 12 to 13 years old. Everett said that's because there's a high chance girls of that age are still virgins.

King said the drug trade and human trafficking work hand in hand. Human trafficking helps pay for the drug trade.


To contact King for concert information, visit her Web site at www.meganking.net or e-mail her at info@meganking.net

Information on the C2G venue is available at www.c2gmusichall.com

Taylor's Web site is www.sunnytaylorband.com, Krist's Web site is www.jankrist.net and Chic Gamine's Web site is at www.chicgamine.com

For more information on Destiny Rescue, visit online at www.destinyrescue.org

"If you want to join Destiny Rescue in the fight against human trafficking and child rescue, you can join our 26 Second Challenge," said Everett. "To join the challenge, visit our Web site and click on the link."

- Times Union

(September 2008)

With her new album, Pretty Songs, Megan King establishes herself as a bright presence in the contemporary Folk scene, with enough heritage to draw the traditional crowd and a modern mindset to interpret that heritage for a new generation. There's an underlying power in King's presentation but it is her openness and vulnerability that reinforces the beauty of her delicate songs.
Dig It: Sarah McLachlan ditching the New Age angle and digging into Joan Baez's back catalog for inspiration. (BB) - City Beat Magazine

"Recording at home and self-releasing music no longer implies less-than-pro material, now that the music industry has been wracked with technological bitch-slaps from no-good kids taking advantage of free downloads and file sharing (the high prices of major label releases coming home to roost, perhaps?) to cheap digital studio-grade recording equipment that lets you churn out startlingly good product. Here's the part, however, where I tell you to skip the free downloads and go buy something. Go buy Megan King's new, yes, self-recorded and self-released album, Pretty Songs LP.

It sounds fantastic, full of emotive vocals and impassioned acoustic-based tunes. It's available directly from her website (www.meganking.net) in both digital download and hard-copy formats. King did everything herself here, from the capable, full-sounding audio production to the artwork, and her hard work certainly pays off.

Listen, for instance, to the powerful, yearning "Little Bird," which balances King's expressive vocals with insistent acoustic strumming. Or the opener, "Two Hearts Waltz," a hypnotizing number floating on a delicate, meditative melody. Like many of the tunes on King's debut, Confidential Reality, "Two Hearts Waltz"Â? contains classic folk elements, but this one adds what could be perceived as Middle Eastern touches to the vocals, to great effect. No shrinking violet, King shows off her more powerful chops during "Enemy You,"Â? which builds up to a coffeehouse-rumbling climax. Drummer? She don't need no stinking drummer.

King's voice most often calls to mind a pleasantly intense combination of Sarah McLachlan and Indigo Girls, and her fretwork, vocal harmonies and subtle musical touches throughout the disc are spot-on. The album's title only hints at the depth and intensity inside these very pretty songs. " --(D.M. Jones) - Whatzup Magazine (Fort Wayne, IN)

While studying at IPFW Megan King made quite a musical impression on professor and local musician John Minton, so much so that he includes a glowing endorsement in the liner notes of her first album. Recorded at Studiobaker Music in North Webster, Confidential Reality is an excellent collection of well-developed songs in the singer-songwriter style, with Megan playing acoustic guitar and singing all vocal parts. The 11 tracks are centered around King’s love and knowledge of folk music, as evidenced by her story songs and strong melodies although hints of blues and rock are not uncommon. “Oblivion Road,� the opener, is one of the best tracks, with King’s frail vocals floating over an acoustic guitar as they articulate an amazing amount of expression, forcing the listener to focus on the message. Yet her voice is far from weak. The rocky, yet mysterious “Forgiveness� displays hints of the Wilson sisters of Heart, and the bluesy, but jaunty “Butterfly People� evokes memories of Janis Joplin. But King’s strength is in her vulnerability, found in such songs as the hauntingly beautiful “Dancing Eyes� that feature a mesmerizing cello or “Imagination,� where fiddle and cello join the acoustic guitar for a near-classical experience. Joining her on this debut musical excursion as heavy hitters like Big Willy and Ted “Mongo� Carter of Summertime Blues Band, fiddler Sean Hoffman, cellist Dan Zambrano and mandolin virtuoso Jay Lapp of Goldmine Pickers. Their experience definitely adds a greater depth to this project, although the songs are so well written and compelling that I have no doubt that they work quite well in a coffee house with just King and her guitar. Mature songwriting, impressive playing, enchanting vocals with endearing two-part harmonies - slip this disc in and become an insider to Megan King’s Confidential Reality.

-Jason Hoffman, Whatzup - Whatzup Magazine

I first met Megan King in the fall of 2002, when she signed up for my Intro to World Folk Music class at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne. Now, as someone who teaches college courses on folk and popular music, I’m accustomed to drawing the musically gifted and musically inclined. I’m constantly amazed at how much my students already know, how eager they are to learn more, how engaged and enthusiastic they are. But Megan was one of those who stands out from the beginning. It wasn’t just that she stayed awake (most manage) and seemed attentive (until the first exam, how can you really tell?). It wasn’t just that she nodded at appropriate times (you can fake that) and laughed at my jokes (I’m sure a lot of times, they’re just sparing my feelings). True, she was often carrying a guitar (many are). And she was "working on a CD" (who isn’t these days?). But Megan asked questions—really relevant questions. She offered informed observations. She knew what ASCAP was and understood the difference between intellectual property and the public domain. She immediately grasped the difference between folk music and the folksong revival. She’d heard of Sligo-style fiddling. She could follow the plot of a Child ballad and hear Cuban rhumba’s influence in Congolese soukous. In short, Megan seemed to get it. I didn’t—not quite. Then one night Megan came down to open stage at Fort Wayne’s Toast & Jam Coffeehouse. And I got it. Megan King sings like a wild bird. She picks a mean guitar. And she writes songs—not just doodles but songs: musical pieces with a beginning, a middle, and an end, actual songs with a structure and a point. So I finally got it. Megan King feels music. She knows music. Megan King gets music. Now that her CD is out, you can get it too. So get it. If you don’t, maybe think about taking a class.

JOHN MINTON
Professor of Folklore
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
- John Minton, IPFW University