Our next LCM featured artist Megan O'Neill has been a firm favourite for quite a while now. Meg is one of the leading stars of UK Country and Americana. We are thrilled to see all her wonderful progress since we first met. Megan supported Lauren Housley at her gig at SPOC last year and were honoured to host the sell-out launch of her recent Common Threads mini album earlier this year at The Sound Lounge. Meg is currently working on a new solo project and as a taster she has released a beautiful song and our LCM #TrackOfTheDay 'Why I Need You'.

Co-written by Megan with Zak Lloyd, and recorded in Nashville earlier this year, this is the first track to be shared from a forthcoming solo album. Describing ‘Why I Need You’, she said “This is definitely the simplest song on the album with just piano and vocal but is quite possibly my favourite... I love how transparent the message is, how bare the track is. I think when you write a song like this with a clear, beautiful message you usually don’t need to build up the track any more than just an acoustic instrument and the vocal. The song is true to my life and about someone who is very important to me.”

Meg will also be appearing alongside Sarah Darling, Gary Quinn, Raintown, Darcy and Simon James at the British Country Music Association (BCMA) ‘Best of British’ concert at the Robin 2 in Bilston, Wolverhampton on 21st October 2017.

Originally from Co. Kildare, Ireland, Megan O’Neill is one of the UK’s most exciting Americana artists, and has shared stages with Miranda Lambert, Kip Moore, and American Young among many others. A long-time musician and songwriter, Megan spent time living in Nashville before moving to London, where she is now based. Her debut EP ‘Coming Home’ was released in May 2015, reaching #1 in the Irish country charts and receiving critical acclaim across the UK.

In 2016, Decca Records released her single ‘Can’t Put a Price on That’, a collaboration with Ben Earle of The Shires; and in February 2017 she followed this with the independent release of her mini-album with six-piece band ‘Megan and the Common Threads’. The project was recorded at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios and produced by the legendary Guy Fletcher (Dire Straits, Roxy Music, Mark Knopfler).

Megan has had songs featured on hit TV Show Nashville, appeared multiple times at C2C Festival at London’s O2 Arena; performed in LA at JJ Abrams’ private A-list Oscar Wilde party; and played many festivals including Nashville Meets London Festival and Harvest Festival in Ireland, alongside acts like Dan + Shay, Courtney Marie Andrews and Catherine McGrath. In February 2017, Megan was recognised as one of the top Americana songwriters in the UK, performing as part of the the Americana Music Awards (AMA-UK) in London.

Regularly travelling to the US for tour dates, recording and songwriting sessions, Megan has played the prestigious Bluebird Café in Nashville three times to date and continues to collaborate with the top writers and musicians between the UK, Ireland and the US. Live radio appearances and performances have included BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio London with Gaby Roslin, 2fm, Dublin City FM, Today FM with Ian Dempsey, BBC Radio Wales, Marie Crichton’s Country Show on BBC, Nevis Radio, Amazing Radio, Chris Country and more.