FRESH WIND SESSION No. 25
Megan Wood
Recording Date: 20 February 2024
KNCE 93.5 FM Premiere Date: 25 February 2024
Substack Premiere: 29 February 2024
Growing up outside of Los Angeles in the 00s, Megan Wood would often drive into the city to catch concerts in the peak years of the indie rock boom. Two decades later, she’s fronting her first band here in Taos: Lady’s Mantle.
I have known Wood for some time via her partner, Robert Quijano - the very first artist I recorded for the Fresh Wind sessions in 2021. Though she was introduced to me as a musician, other than a few performances accompanying Quijano on cover songs at the Taos Farmer’s Market over the years, I had never really heard what her music sounded like until a series of videos appeared on her new band’s Instagram page in the summer of 2023.
The majority of Wood’s songs have a suite-like quality to them. On her most recent composition included in this session, “Rendezvous”, there’s a section about halfway through where she makes her way through three or four minutes of shifting, cascading riffs that could be out of some of the best work of, say, Grizzly Bear or the more acoustic-leaning-Animal Collective tracks.
As she told me over the course of our candid interview last week, Wood picked up the guitar for the first time around the age of 19. Rather than following the traditional path of learning other people’s song, she took the longer route of instead writing her own material and slowly forging her own style on the instrument.
I’m curious to see what the future holds for Wood and her Lady’s Mantle band. Their first single is due for release in the coming months, and a number of shows in Northern New Mexico are planned for this spring as well. They’ll be appearing next at Ennui Gallery on the evening of Monday, March 18th in a show also featuring Hayley Harper (Fresh Wind Session No. 21) and The Arcane Ramblers (Fresh Wind Session No. 12). Follow along as things evolve on Wood’s personal Instagram @splendortender and her band’s account as well @ladysmantle.
5: Fresh Wind Session No. 26: Megan Wood