Megan Keely

Companion 

“Megan is not an in-your-face artist. She tells her story with subtle passion and not with rage. – No Depression 

On Megan Keely’s fifth album, Companion, she embraces quiet power, delivering to a perpetually frantic world a deeply calming tonic. According to Keely, Companion is meant to be digested alone, with eyes half-closed while dozing off for a blanketed afternoon nap. Companion is an antidote, at once potent and gentle, to the anxiety-ridden frenzy of FOMO-inducing social media.

Keely’s sincere lyrics and honey-coated vocals have been captivating audiences since her 2010 debut album Acorn Collection. She recorded her sophomore album, Deciduous, in Nashville, Tennessee after her and her brother's song 'Rules' landed on The Hunger Games companion soundtrack produced by T Bone Burnett. Aiming her focus toward TV & Film, she recorded her 3rd and 4th albums between studios in Los Angeles, Nashville, and San Francisco.

Keely's song 'Dream It Now' provided the soundtrack for the promotion of director Davis Guggenheim's (Inconvenient Truth) documentary film The Dream Is Now. Her 4th album Bloom was received to critical acclaim for its courageous subject matter as “an affirmative fist raised for hope amidst a divisive political climate” (PopMatters), but in the years following its release Keely felt the need to re-ground herself, withdrawing from the more public aspects of music and activism.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2021. Fearing her relationship with music was going out like a flickering flame, Keely finally reconnected with her songwriting. “It was like getting a much-needed visit from a dear old friend when I didn't realize how much I missed her,” she says. 

In Keely’s words, the resulting album is “a step back to the beginning. Writing simple songs just for the sake of creating, the way it was before business and capitalism and living expenses got in the way.” Self-recorded on a single microphone in her bedroom in San Francisco, a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean, Companion turned out to be a welcome chance to collaborate with herself; to quiet the impulse to please others and instead listen to her quirky inner instincts. 

In a concise 32 minutes, Keely offers Companion as an invisible elixir to help slow your heartbeat to its natural rhythm. Feel that feeling of untangled calm, the comfort of a foggy morning, a well-earned rest. There's work to do, and for many of us, strength and resilience requires a quiet moment to recharge.”