Margaret's debut album blends her clear, soothing vocal style and honest, heartfelt songwriting with a jammin' acoustic folk band including outstanding performances on drums, bass, and fiddle.

12 MP3 Songs
FOLK: like Joni, FOLK: Gentle



Details:
Straight outta Portland,Oregon struts Margaret Mallatt's debut album "Wide Open World", blending the unflinching honesty of a journal with humor and Midwestern savoir faire. Margaret spins her struggles into the gold of rueful, saucy wisdom with her sweet, soothing vocals and poetic, thought-provoking lyrics. Her band of accomplices lay down a rich carpet of acoustic folk, upright bass, strings and raucous jams for barefoot dancing.

Margaret was born in Madison, Wisconsin where she grew up singing along to Karen Carpenter, the Beatles and Neil Young. She first fell in love with folk music at summer camp. After several summers under the northern Wisconsin stars singing Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan tunes around the campfire, Margaret became inspired to learn guitar. Ten years later, after a knee injury threatened her sanity, she began writing her own songs. She has drawn strength and inspiration from kindred sisters like Lucinda Williams, Ani DiFranco, Alanis Morissette, Jonatha Brooke, Patti Griffin and Joan Osborne--women who sing with heart and tell it like it is.

Margaret attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in Art and English. After college, not sure how to make a living with an art degree, she moved to Portland where she earned her Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology. She taught college psychology for 8 years during which she dabbled in painting and ceramics, wrote songs, and finished CD production. Margaret has recently quit teaching to pursue her art and music career.