Philly Song Phriday: Meghan Cary, Katie Dahl, and Grace Morrison
August 8 at 8:00 pm-10:30 pm
$20.00
Tickets $20 online, $25 at the door. (online tickets end at 6:30pm on the day of the show)
10% off Taqueria Cresta with your Fallser Club ticket!!
Meghan Cary
Meghan Cary didn’t mean to be a musician. But when her fiancé unexpectedly died, she picked up his guitar, figured out how to play it, and wrote her debut record, earning her Billboard Magazine’s esteemed Critic’s Choice Award. “I wrote my grief into music and sang my way out of the abyss.I keep making music to help others connect with their own stories and find their joy.”
Her album, SING LOUDER, debuted in the top 10 on the US/International Folk DJ Chart, and John Platt of WFUV extols, “These times require songs of compassion and commitment. Meghan has several which inspire us to reach our higher selves, and she sings them with such infectious joy you can’t resist joining in.”
With masterful storytelling and award-winning songs, Cary creates a live music experience that is healing, inspiring, and outrageously joyful. Her message of unity and the power of raising our voices together infuses every show, and her song, “Sing Louder”, has become an anthem for the music-loving community.
Meghan’s Social:
Katie Dahl
“Katie Dahl’s songs aren’t just melodies and words, they’re journeys that are firmly grounded in a sense of place—beautiful, real landscapes that help you feel places that you may have never been before. That’s the very best kind of songwriting.”
— Dar Williams
Clear-eyed and tough-minded, songwriter/playwright Katie Dahl is known for her smart songs, wry wit, and wise spirit. A small-town celebrity on the Wisconsin peninsula where her family has lived for 175 years, Katie is also an internationally touring, radio-charting artist who “delivers razor-sharp lyrics with a hearty, soulful voice” (American Songwriter). In live shows that are both courageously honest and devilishly funny, Katie dives deep into questions of land and love, family and body image, grief and joy. “In unsettled times,” says Peter Mulvey, “Katie Dahl brings us a grounded spirit.”
Katie’s five albums of original songs showcase her creamy alto, abiding love of the land, and trademark humor, as well as her unflinching vulnerability. Her recent work finds her exploring deeper territory than ever before, from anxiety to body image to the challenges of growing up queer in an evangelical church. Richly steeped in the American songwriting tradition, Katie navigates the muddy waters between the personal, public, and political with tenderness and dexterity.
In 2024, Katie was named a Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Finalist, as well as “Most Wanted to Return” at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist Showcase. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes, “Katie Dahl . . . combine[s] old-fashioned populism, an abiding love of the land and wickedly smart love songs, all delivered in a rich and expressive alto.”
Katie was a first-year college student in Minnesota when she slipped on a patch of sidewalk ice and broke her wrist. Suddenly unable to play the oboe in her college orchestra, Katie used her newfound free time to learn guitar, teaching herself chord shapes as she strummed the strings with her stiff right hand. Twenty-odd years later, that icy day has proven to be a blessing in disguise, leading Katie into a life of work that Dar Williams calls “the very best kind of songwriting.”
Katie’s most recent album, Seven Stones (2023) is a deep dive into vulnerability originally titled Things Katie Dahl Finds Hard to Say. Produced by Julie Wolf and featuring appearances by such luminaries as Kris Delmhorst, Peter Mulvey, Eliza Gilkyson, Vicki Randle, Todd Sickafoose, and Jenny Scheinman, the album was praised as “breathtaking” by Country Queer and spent a month at #2 on the folk radio charts. Her 2019 album Wildwood, which explored her ancestry and contemporary life in Door County, was produced by JT Nero (Birds of Chicago) and features Allison Russell; the album’s song “Worry My Friend” hit #6 on the folk radio charts in 2019.
Says Nero, “Katie Dahl is the real deal. She’s a ‘regional’ artist the way Robert Frost is a regional artist, meaning everybody in the world can appreciate the way she captures the spirit of a place–and the generations of humans who’ve lived, loved and died there–with such grace, nuance and grit.”
Ordinary Band (2015), produced by Eric Lewis and featuring a guest appearance by Tracy Grammer, found an unexpected hit with the bluegrass-tinged “Crowns,” which spent a month at #1 on the folk charts. Leaky Boats and Paper Birds (2012) produced Dahl’s biggest crowd-pleaser, an ode to local restaurants called “Hometown Tables.” County Line (2009) was her debut album.
Katie is also a musical playwright; her latest musical The Fisherman’s Daughters (2024) tells the story of two sisters in 1908 who fight the state of Wisconsin’s efforts to take their rural homestead via eminent domain to make a state park. Victory Farm (2012; co-written with James Valcq and Emilie Coulson) is a fictionalized account of the real-life German POWs who came to Wisconsin to pick cherries during World War II. Both plays were made into live cast recordings. Katie is currently writing three more musicals.
When she’s not on the road (and when she is), Katie enjoys fiction reading, cookie baking, slow running, and Green Bay Packers football, as well as spending time with her partner and their eight-year-old son.
Katie’s Social:
Grace Morrison
If nerditude had a formal name, it would be Grace Morrison. She’s a little bit of everything—pianist, accordion player, Renaissance Faire performer, cranberry grower, reader of historical nonfiction, coffee devotee (she sells her own coffee blend), and an unapologetic expert on all things New England. And somehow, all these quirks weave seamlessly into the fabric of her music, making her one of the most unique and endearing songwriters around.
Born and raised on the shores of Cape Cod, Grace Morrison has trademarked a sound she calls Saltwater Country. “I was always too pop for folk and too folk for country. Eventually, I began peeling back the layers of my music to discover what truly made it mine. At the heart of it all was my deep, undeniable connection to the Cape Cod coastline—it’s in my blood, in my voice, in every lyric I write. My music carries the storytelling of country, the twang, but also the raw, unshakable spirit of a Swamp Yankee. That’s Saltwater Country.” Proudly unconventional, she’s never held what some would call a “real job.” She says “it’s always been music and how lucky am I that music has given me this wild, unpredictable journey through the human experience. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
Her career started when she was in high school playing at coffee shops, where she sang for tips—one of which came from none other than actor James Spader. “I still have the $20 he left me,” she laughs.
Not long after, she hit the road with Rock 4 Xmas, sharing the stage with legends like Eddie Money, Joey Molland (Badfinger), Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, writer of Da Ya Think I’m Sexy), and Greg Douglass (Steve Miller Band, co-writer of Jungle Love). “I was 17, on a tour bus with rock icons. You can’t ask for a better crash course in rock ‘n’ roll than that. I could tell you some stories,” she says with a knowing grin. “It was Spinal Tap in real life—literally, someone from that movie was on the tour. But for me, the biggest thing was realizing that this life—touring, performing—was possible. All I’ve wanted since then was to get back on that bus.”
In those early years, she struggled to define her own sound. “My dad was convinced I should be a blues singer—like he hadn’t even heard my voice,” she jokes. “It took time, but I finally figured out who I am as an artist. And that’s Saltwater Country.” One of the defining moments in her journey came when she collaborated with hit songwriter Lori McKenna. “I was eight months pregnant when Lori invited me to write with her. We wrote Just Loving You, and it was the most personal thing I had ever written. The way it connected with audiences—it was something I had never experienced before. I learned that the more personal and specific my songs are, the more they seem to resonate. You’ve got to write what you know.” Saltwater Country, the album, is a testament to that.
Saltwater Country takes the old adages of “3 chords and the truth” and “don’t bore us, get to the chorus”, wraps them up with a 90’s pop bow, and leaves the listener with a sound that is at once new and familiar. Produced by Jon Evans (Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan), the album ranges from the gritty, swampy Poor Man’s Daughter—a raw reflection on growing up with nothing—to the fun, twang-filled Beer in a Teacup, an anthem about embracing imperfections and letting self-doubt roll off your shoulders. It’s the sound of an artist who’s found her confidence, embraced her quirks, and learned that
sometimes, when life gets messy, you just pour your beer in a teacup and move on.
Grace’s Social:
https://www.gracemorrison.com/
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By Car or By Train
The East Falls Train Station is a short walk from the Fallser Club. Parking in East Falls is no problem! There is ample free on-street parking near the East Falls train station driveway at 3610 Midvale Ave and a paid municipal lot three blocks away at 4100 Ridge Ave. Midvale Ave and Ridge Ave are both well-lit!