Maggie Walters

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: A mysterious brunette with a light up goose and a giant tambourine. Word-of-mouth has been Maggie Walters’ best friend since she settled in Austin, Texas a few years ago with little more than a guitar and some acoustic demos she’d recorded in the bathroom of a dilapidated Chicago apartment. Elegant and challenging, the arrival of her self-titled debut was met with a four-star Austin American-Statesman review, KGSR radioplay, and a sold-out CD release at the Cactus Café, making her someone Austin talked about. Now she’s delivering on that promise by unleashing Midwestern Hurricane. An album featuring some of Austin’s best-known musicians (as Texas Music Magazine suggested, “genuine talent seeks its own level,”) Midwestern Hurricane was produced by The Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary (Sublime, Meat Puppets) with Walters and mixed by James Vollentine (Spoon, Patty Griffin). The new album also features appearances from legendary Faces alumni Ian MacLagan, Lyle Lovett cellist John Hagen, and Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard. Walters’ songs have garnered national attention and have been played on Austin’s KGSR, KUT and stations with similar programming throughout the country. Walters was recently chosen as one of Music Connection Magazine’s Top 100 Artists of 2007, has been featured on The Bob Edwards Show, XM Radio’s Radar Report, Mix Magazine, KUT’s inaugural podcast, was and editor’s pick on Download.com, an Artist Direct finalist for The Ultimate Band Competition, and was invited to play the SXSW music conference three times. LISTENER COMMENTS AND REVIEWS BELOW: I first encountered Maggie Walters at MySpace. There, I began to hear her music, and recognized a fine talent right away. Hailing from Kansas via a few years in Chicago, Maggie came to Austin, Texas just a few years ago, and in a short time, rounded up the best musicians in town, and made a great record - right out of the starting gate! "Maggie Walters" is a fine debut album that stands up alongside Austin's best. Her follow-up album, the soon-to-be-released "Midwestern Hurricane", delivers solidly upon the promise already found in the first album. Is the character in "Be Careful Love" is the same woman as in "Fingerprints"? I don't know, but either way, she is giving some very confident advice to her new suitor: "Don't go making all your plans, cause I'll just f*** 'em up," sung so delicately and so sweetly that you are completely disarmed, if not charmed, by the use of the f-word. If that is not enough, then she comes in with the knockout punch: "I probably won't remember you, but baby you'll remember me." Talk about a steel hand inside a velvet glove! [They used to say that about Margaret Thatcher when she was Britain's Prime Minister in the 1980's. But Maggie's beautiful voice doubles the velvet!] With "Spin," Maggie goes after the media's News We Can't Use in a brilliant deconstruction of broadcast news. It's as sly and sexy as it is accurate. It should be noted here that "Spin" is the first song she wrote, beginning a string of songwriting driven by an activist desire to make a difference with her music. I somehow doubt this will be the last protest song we'll hear from this gifted young lady! "The Other Spin," takes on a Memphis-Blues sound. Throw in funky support from "Scrappy" Jud Newcomb and Bukka Allen, and you have a Memphis-Blues riff that would make Elvis Presley himself stand up and take notice! "Flash" is a fun romp thru rejection of the soulless "bling bling" of some rich dude who can "buy himself some brand new toys to keep him occupied" and challenges him to "show me what's inside." What's more - the melody stays with you! Maggie's debut album is strong from start to finish, at once elegant and beautifully simple. I listen to other new artists, and old ones, and I find myself feeling "They're great, but they are just not Maggie!" Get to know Maggie Walters. You're going to hear a lot more from her! Stay tuned! ---