Meg at The Neeld in Chippenham

Yeah I know, those Nothing Rhymes With Orange lads were pepping up the Crown in Devizes for a Fantasy Radio live lounge last night, and we’re devoted to singing their praises, but over in Chippenham young folk singer-songwriter Meg was doing an intimate set in the Neeld bar, and since my daughter Jess did a fantastic interview with her a few months ago, I was eager to cross Meg off my never-ending must-see live list….

Glad I did, Meg was everything I’d expected and a tad more. Self-penned marvels of whimsical contrasts, between abstract prose of youthful dreams and harsher realities, make for a mostly melancholicus muse, thoughtful and delivered so utterly beautifully it encapsulates you like every good folk singer should, but Meg most definitely does, and Meg most definitely is only at the beginnings of a fascinating journey and one I suspect she’ll document diary-like in song.

Bags of potential here, for her audience to mature with her words, as Potterheads have with Rowling’s, in which Meg is often
quizzically humble, as if asking her audience the kind of questions your teenage self might’ve pondered alone on a ruffled duvet. It causes it to connote honesty, opening her innermost thoughts and desires to you, and the result is spellbinding. So much so, there’s times you assume the song has ended and she’s breaking the fourth wall with customary annotations, but Meg will smile a special smile, and continue the piece, and it’s touching in a unique manner; I’ve never seen another blur the lines between song and chat as well as this.

Yet the most engaging element is the passion in which she performs. In Jess’s interview, Meg was keen to express the connection between her music and her autism, suggesting it was part of her, so she didn’t think she would have one without the other. It equates to a channelled joyful passion, which unavoidably rubs off to her audience.

Look out for Meg, regularly support act at Trowbridge’s Pump and a keen open mic participant at The Old Road Tavern’s.