Sarah Gayle Meech
From the heart of Nashville’s vibrant music scene, Meech has emerged as a captivating force. Her upbringing in picturesque Longview, Washington, amidst evergreens, small towns, and resilient souls formed the bedrock of inspiration that permeates her work. Since moving to Tennessee over a decade ago, the city’s spirit has woven itself into that emotive sound, infusing it with the soul of country music’s past, as Meech looks towards the future.
With her forthcoming LP, Easin’ On, co-produced by Meech and Shawn Byrne, delivers a gut-punching collection of songs, penned solely by Meech, that speak to making peace with herself, and finding love - and life - again. After the release of her sophomore album, Tennessee Love Song, Meech went through the wringer - a divorce, the death of her best friend, struggles with inner demons, and just trying to survive.
Her debut album, One Good Thing, resonated deeply with both fans and critics, and with residencies at iconic venues like Robert’s Western World and Layla’s on Broadway, she solidified her presence in Music City, The momentum surged with her self-released sophomore effort, Tennessee Love Song, earning Meech the Ameripolitan Music Award for Best Female Outlaw. Her compositions found a home in film and television, with features on ABC’s “Nashville,” CMT, The Travel Channel, FX’s “Justified,” and many more.
There is an intimate and transformative journey within the grooves of the 10 soulful tracks on Easin’ On. The adventure begins with opener “Time For A Change,” which Meech describes as “the story of everything that was wrong in my life at the time.” After taking stock of her life, dealing with loneliness, emptiness, and divorce, she wrote “Time For A Change” as a prayer, a plea for salvation, a reminder of the hard truths she needed to face. “I couldn’t keep living the way I was. I wanted to find love again and couldn’t understand why nothing was working,” she recalls. “I realized I didn’t love myself, so how could anyone else? I knew I had to change and get my soul and life at peace.” Songs like “Love Me” pay homage to the rhythm and good vibes of heroes like Glen Campbell, whose “Southern Nights” captivated Meech at an early age. For an artist whose catalog brims with love songs from a sad perspective, “Love Me” is about finding joy and happiness again - and having fun. Title track “Easin’ On,” which captures the overarching spirit of the record, celebrates freedom.
“This album captures the beautiful highs and the terrible lows,” Meech explains. “I hope it helps others feel stronger, and that it’s possible to find joy again. To me, Easin’ On is about leaving the past in the rear view. Taking control of my life again and doing it my way,” she says. “I wanted to invoke the feeling of soaring, growing wings and taking flight. This body of work is a call to liberation, to keep on truckin’, keep on going down the road. Be free. Move on,” she adds. “Let the new in.”