Ohio native Megan Palmer arrived in Nashville seven years ago and it wasn’t long before she was one of the East Nashville music community’s in demand musicians, known for violin, guitar, keys and vocals. I first became aware of her talents a few years back when she played violin and sang on one of Tim Easton’s annual Bob Dylan covers for Nashville non-profit SAFPAW - The Southern Alliance For People and Animal Welfare. She’s also worked with Amy Speace, Darrin Bradbury and Ann McCue and has quite the Nashville crew on her new 5-song EP, Take Good Care, out this week. Recorded at East Nashville’s Bomb Shelter studio with producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray For The Riff Raff), the EP includes Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs on bass, JJ Tourville of The Deslondes on guitar and pedal steel, Derry DeBorja from Jason Isbell’s band, The 400 Unit on synth and organ plus drummer Megan Coleman (Yola), who was just nominated in the Instrumentalist of The Year category for the 20th annual Americana Honors and Awards, September 22, 2021 at Ryman Auditorium, plus background vocals from Kyshona Armstrong, Nickie Conley and Maureen Murphy on the title track.
She’s also been in the nursing profession for more than 20 years and is currently an RN in Vanderbilt’s Palliative Care unit. What started as conversations with her colleagues about what they were all feeling and experiencing as end of life caregivers during the Covid-19 pandemic, resulted in an expression of emotions and thoughts through beautifully crafted songs. Some of Palmer’s co-writers had never written a song before, but they all shared this pandemic experience together and it seems as though this project is as healing for its participants as it is for us, the listeners. The title song, “Take Good Care” reminds us to take good care of ourselves as well as others.
Palmer released the songs throughout the month of May, National Nurses Month, beginning with the title track on May 6th, National Nurses Day and ending with the entire EP available today, June 3rd, National Cancer Survivor Day (Palmer is a breast cancer survivor). Below is a short clip filmed and edited by Nashville’s Anana Kaye and Irakli Gabriel that is an introduction to the project in Palmer’s own words, plus the video for the song “Take Good Care”. I’m playing that song this weekend on WMOT’s The Local Brew Hour (Sundays at 8am and Mondays at 7pm) and more from the EP in the coming weeks. What a gift for those in the health care profession to have their experiences put into words with this gorgeous music, what a gift for all of us!
Megan Palmer, “Introduction to Take Good Care”
Megan Palmer, “Take Good Care”
