It’s been quite a stir for the Minnesota progressive folk-rock-country sextet Maygen & The Birdwatcher. In late 2021 they released their debut full-length album, Moonshine – (which Americana UK wrote is “stunning”) – earning them Midwest Country Music Awards for Album of the Year and Americana Artist of the Year) and landed opportunities to join festival stages with bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, Paul Cauthen, Grace Potter, and even support a childhood favorite, Travis Tritt.
They continued the momentum in late 2022, releasing Moonshine’s companion EP, with the “lively and charming” (Adventures in Americana) Bootleggin’ At The Flower Shoppe, which took home a 2nd round of wins for Album of the Year and Americana Artist of the Year at the Midwest Country Music Organization’s annual awards show.
The mood-boosting Americana band adventurously blurs the sounds of country, bluegrass, folk, and blues. Lead singers Maygen Lacey, and Noah Neumann intentionally work to draw on their vastly different musical influences and vocal styles to bring a fresh and unexpected mix of songs to light. From beauty to grit, sadness to silliness, the common thread is that this crew loves music, and playing it together, and it shows.
This past October, Maygen & The Birdwatcher hosted and curated the inaugural Amerigrass Fest at The Hook and Ladder Theater & Lounge in Minneapolis. Maygen Lacey cherishes the special community of musical artists in the Midwest, and looks forward to celebrating what each genre, and fusion of genres can bring about at the new event Amerigrass Fest – “We are big fans of collaboration and love to play with the bands we share the stage with. Music is our love language and we’re very excited to play Amerigrass with the talented array of artists.”
In late 2023, Maygen & The Birdwatcher teamed up with the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition, a non-profit organization to help save North America’s most threatened ecosystem: its native grasslands. Together, they released an original song and music video, titled “Where Good Things Grow,” that they hope will raise public awareness regarding the importance of grassland ecosystems and generate support for programs and activities to encourage farmers, ranchers, and state officials to develop programs and policies that preserve and restore the health of North America’s grasslands.
Maygen & The Birdwatcher are currently working on their next studio project with acclaimed producer, artist and guitarist-extraordinaire, Erik Koskinen, due out Spring 2024.
