Biography
Meg Baird currently calls San Francisco home, where she issues recordings under her own name while also writing songs, playing multiple instruments, and fronting Heron Oblivion. Earlier she belonged to the psych-folk band Espers and performed as one half of the sibling project the Baird Sisters. Her background sits firmly inside Celtic and Anglo folk currents, American psych lineages, and the broader stream of Americana. The light, glassy quality of her singing and the shape of her compositions sit naturally inside that world. Besides her many joint efforts with others, her small number of praised solo records includes the star-filled Seasons on Earth from 2011 and Furling, the 2023 release on which she handled nearly every part herself.
Baird first crossed paths with Sharron Kraus, the Oxford-born folk singer, in 2005 and the two quickly became friends; Kraus later moved to Philadelphia. Together with Espers cellist Helena Espvall, they cut the 2006 Bo Weavil album Leaves from Off the Tree. Baird’s first solo record, Dear Companion, appeared on Drag City in 2007 and mixed numerous covers with two original pieces that revealed both her range of influences and her fluency across folk idioms. She toured in support, then teamed with Laura Baird for the Baird Sisters’ Lonely Town, released in 2008, before returning to Espers for their 2009 album III. Following more road work and a short break, she recorded her second solo album, Seasons on Earth, again for Drag City; it surfaced in September 2011 and included contributions from Steve Gunn, Chris Forsyth, harpist Mary Lattimore, pedal steel player Marc Orleans, and additional guests. That year she also played on Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring for My Halo, appeared on Glenn Jones’ My Garden State in 2012, and, still in 2012, issued the Baird Sisters’ Until You Find Your Green on Grapefruit.
After settling in San Francisco she joined neo-psych outfit Heron Oblivion as drummer and lead singer alongside guitarists Charles Saufley and Noel Von Harmonson of Sic Alps and Six Organs of Admittance plus bassist Ethan Miller of Howlin’ Rain and Feral. Over the next several years she contributed tracks to various-artist collections such as Momentos 2011: Canciones Internacionales, Vol. II, Thirteenth, and Shirley Inspired. In June 2015 Drag City put out her third solo album, Don’t Weigh Down the Light, performed entirely by Baird and Saufley. Once touring wrapped she reunited with Heron Oblivion for their self-titled 2017 debut on Sub Pop, which the label characterized as “pastoral pummel.”
Baird’s path had long overlapped with that of avant harpist Mary Lattimore, whose singular voice, instrumental skill, and compositional ideas enriched both her own projects and an extensive list of recordings and tours with contemporary indie and experimental artists. Despite sharing the same circles for roughly ten years, the two had never worked together until 2018, when they issued the collaborative album Ghost Forests on Three Lobed. The record contains six pieces built from harp, guitars, synths, and vocals. Before its mid-November release the duo toured Western Europe and the U.K.
Also in 2018 Heron Oblivion self-released its second album, The Chapel, while Baird and Saufley placed the track “Protection Hex” on Drag City’s Hexadic III compilation. The following year Baird sang on Steve Gunn’s The Unseen In Between. In 2021 she added vocals to a version of Lowell George’s Little Feat classic “I’ve Been the One” for Bill Callahan and Bonnie Prince Billy’s guest-filled double covers set Blind Date Party. She next appeared on Joan Shelley’s 2022 album The Spur, lending guest vocals to the tracks “Forever Blues” and “Bolt.” January 2023 brought Furling, Baird’s first solo album in seven and a half years; she played most instruments herself, though Lattimore added harp, and handled production. Even with this inward approach the arrangements grew more layered than on some earlier solo work, folding in treated piano, drums, and multiple synth parts around her distinctive haunted folk sound.
Baird first crossed paths with Sharron Kraus, the Oxford-born folk singer, in 2005 and the two quickly became friends; Kraus later moved to Philadelphia. Together with Espers cellist Helena Espvall, they cut the 2006 Bo Weavil album Leaves from Off the Tree. Baird’s first solo record, Dear Companion, appeared on Drag City in 2007 and mixed numerous covers with two original pieces that revealed both her range of influences and her fluency across folk idioms. She toured in support, then teamed with Laura Baird for the Baird Sisters’ Lonely Town, released in 2008, before returning to Espers for their 2009 album III. Following more road work and a short break, she recorded her second solo album, Seasons on Earth, again for Drag City; it surfaced in September 2011 and included contributions from Steve Gunn, Chris Forsyth, harpist Mary Lattimore, pedal steel player Marc Orleans, and additional guests. That year she also played on Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring for My Halo, appeared on Glenn Jones’ My Garden State in 2012, and, still in 2012, issued the Baird Sisters’ Until You Find Your Green on Grapefruit.
After settling in San Francisco she joined neo-psych outfit Heron Oblivion as drummer and lead singer alongside guitarists Charles Saufley and Noel Von Harmonson of Sic Alps and Six Organs of Admittance plus bassist Ethan Miller of Howlin’ Rain and Feral. Over the next several years she contributed tracks to various-artist collections such as Momentos 2011: Canciones Internacionales, Vol. II, Thirteenth, and Shirley Inspired. In June 2015 Drag City put out her third solo album, Don’t Weigh Down the Light, performed entirely by Baird and Saufley. Once touring wrapped she reunited with Heron Oblivion for their self-titled 2017 debut on Sub Pop, which the label characterized as “pastoral pummel.”
Baird’s path had long overlapped with that of avant harpist Mary Lattimore, whose singular voice, instrumental skill, and compositional ideas enriched both her own projects and an extensive list of recordings and tours with contemporary indie and experimental artists. Despite sharing the same circles for roughly ten years, the two had never worked together until 2018, when they issued the collaborative album Ghost Forests on Three Lobed. The record contains six pieces built from harp, guitars, synths, and vocals. Before its mid-November release the duo toured Western Europe and the U.K.
Also in 2018 Heron Oblivion self-released its second album, The Chapel, while Baird and Saufley placed the track “Protection Hex” on Drag City’s Hexadic III compilation. The following year Baird sang on Steve Gunn’s The Unseen In Between. In 2021 she added vocals to a version of Lowell George’s Little Feat classic “I’ve Been the One” for Bill Callahan and Bonnie Prince Billy’s guest-filled double covers set Blind Date Party. She next appeared on Joan Shelley’s 2022 album The Spur, lending guest vocals to the tracks “Forever Blues” and “Bolt.” January 2023 brought Furling, Baird’s first solo album in seven and a half years; she played most instruments herself, though Lattimore added harp, and handled production. Even with this inward approach the arrangements grew more layered than on some earlier solo work, folding in treated piano, drums, and multiple synth parts around her distinctive haunted folk sound.
Albums
Furling
2023
Ghost Forests
2018
Don't Weigh Down the Light
2015
Seasons On Earth
2011
Dear Companion
2007
Singles
