photo by Godlis	photo by Godlis
photo by Godlis	photo by Godlis
photo by Godlis	photo by Godlis
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"Let Your Ghost Go" One Sheet - also available as a PDF file

Do you believe in ghosts? The kind that come to you in strange dreams or during sleepless nights? In a foreign city where a day feels like a year? In front of a blank sheet of paper? Or driving alone down the highway? These are the ghosts that roam the spaces between loved ones and strangers, hope and despair.

Megan Reilly believes in ghosts, and on her second full-length release, she sings to them. She takes them on and questions them and gives them the respect they deserve. These songs are beautifully haunted. At their core is her voice that moves before you know it from a whisper to a wail and back again. It’s a voice that draws you in and breaks your heart, then makes you want more.

If each note sung tells a story, then that story is made even more compelling by Reilly’s stellar group of all-star musicians. Steve Goulding (Mekons, Graham Parker & the Rumour, Waco Brothers, Laura Cantrell) on drums, Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu) on bass, Tim Foljahn (Two Dollar Guitar, Cat Power, Townes Van Zandt) on guitar, and Eric Morrison (Home) on piano -- these players bring to the music their vast experience and acute sensitivity. Guests include Ted Reichman (Marc Ribot, Emigre, Tzadik) on accordion, James Mastro (Healthy & Happiness Show, Ian Hunter, Bongos) on guitar, Jean Cook (Ida, Assif Tsahar) on violin, and Jenny Morrison (Home) on backing vocals and clarinet.

Sue Garner (Thrill Jockey, Run On) produces and brings rich textures to the recording, stark dynamics, and intensified emotional power. Years ago, back in Memphis, Megan first heard Sue play at a Run On show. She was wowed. She awkwardly slipped Sue a rough tape of her songs. Doesn’t any young soul shyly long for their heroes to hear what they’re up to? Ten years later, the two women spent hours and hours and days and days putting these songs together with passion and care. A great friendship and collaboration was born. They enlisted the expert John McEntire (TORTOISE) to mix at his Soma Electronic Music Studios, and the result is something very special indeed.

“ Let Your Ghost Go” is a giant leap by Megan Reilly, both musically and thematically, into the world where music and life meet. Where a song can speak to a secret place in the back of your mind. This is the world that Megan cares about. It’s a world of emotion and memory and gorgeous sounds. It’s the mysterious world of human contemplation and expression and harmony. It’s the world of Megan’s Reilly’s ghosts.

Press words on 2003’s Arc of Tessa:

With a languid sense of melody and a throaty soprano cloaked in mystique...Reilly exudes souther gothicism at nearly every turn...Arc of Testa brings to mind an array of reference points, among them Cowboy Junkies, Mazzy Star and Abra Moore. -No Depression

Deeply reflective and darkly languorous, undergirded with drama that never fully rises to the top. -Pop Culture Press

Appealing all the way around, with gentle countrified ballads.-Bitch

 

"Arc of Tessa" One Sheet - also available as a PDF file

What possesses a diverse, talented, and somewhat grizzled group of seasoned New York music veterans to set aside nearly a century of combined fatigue & cynicism to play with a young female singer/songwriter just moved up from Memphis into the toughest music scene in the world? Each of them may have different answers, but all of them certainly would cite her unique songwriting and her voice.

Oh, the voice.

But first, the songs. Most are snippets of a moment of physical or emotional time, almost perfectly captured as if by a master photographer, without sensationalizing or unnecessarily falling back on the overwrought. Hints of country roots insinuate Megan’s southern upbringing further into the music, which is played flawlessly. She includes covers of Van Morrison’s “Gypsy” and stunningly, Roy Orbison’s “Evergreen” that should close the book on future versions.

The band is comprised of Tim Foljahn (guitar, lap steel, mandolin-Two Dollar Guitar, Cat Power), Steve Goulding (drums-Mekons, Graham Parker, Waco Brothers, Archer Prewitt), Tony Maimone (bass-Pere Ubu, Gary Lucas) & Eric Morrison (piano, rhodes, vocals-Home, Leels). They play each note, each beat, to perfection, always leaning to less, leaving ample space for the songs to breathe and faultless touches to be savored, amidst Eric’s warm production. Helped out by Chris Lee and Jenny Morrison to both add tasty touches.

The band, the songs, the musical underpinning, all serve to illumine Megan’s radiant voice. Sometimes an almost distant siren quietly drawing you toward emotional seduction with a languid southern indolence, and other times strong and full enough to quiet the loudest protestations, sometimes tipping over into the tiniest hint of emotional tremor.
Names: Opal, Cowboy Junkies, Mazzy Star, Timothy Prudhomme, Patsy Cline, Lucinda Williams

Listen to Real Audio
From Let Your Ghost Go (saki038)
On A Plane
Night Time

From Arc of Tessa (saki035)
Girl
With You
He Is

See Megan's Tour Dates

L I N K S
Megan has her own website.

Megan's MySpace Page.

For booking information about Megan, contact Carrot Top Records, Inc.

 

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