A rabbit’s foot hung from her banjo, tied with a baby-pink string. Many believe the amulet brings luck. But Meredith Moon’s talent sang louder than luck ever could.
The Ottawa Grassroots Festival closed its third night with Meredith and her five-piece-band as the headlining performance.
Her set included 12 songs ranging from Appalachian soul music to gospel.
Seats filled quickly at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, and audience members ‘mooned’ as Meredith played “Ocotillo,” an unreleased song.
In an interview with Roots Music Canada, she said the song includes Spaghetti Western-style guitar with some Appalachian fiddle.
“We all kind of go wild on it,” Meredith said in the interview. “It’s really fun and really high energy,” she added
The fast-hammering banjo number was written in 2025 by a homesick Meredith in the deserts of Tacoma, New Mexico, she said in a Facebook post.
She said an ocotillo’s spikes are like a human’s personal boundaries; they protect what’s inside.
Meredith says, “We should learn from [the ocotillo],” and it seems like she already has.
In the interview, Meredith said she’s on a path to find what’s true to her. “Every day I check in with myself, and I ask myself, ‘Is [music] what I am here to do?’ and the answer is always yes.”
From a young age, she knew a nine to five would be untrue to herself. Her inspiration came from artists, and she grew up in an environment where music was the centre of everything.
But too much of anything can wear you down.
“I never want music to become a job where I’m forced to do it every single day, every moment of the day,” said Meredith in the interview.
She used Joni Mitchell’s term “crop rotation” to explain how she balances her wants and needs with demands.
On days when Meredith isn’t drawn to music, she’ll paint instead.
“It’s about going [what] you feel posed to make art at that time,” she said.
With that balance in mind, Meredith always finds her way back.
“Music for me will never lose its magic. It will never lose its healing power,” she said.
Her song “East City Blues” was written when she needed comfort while living in the west end of Peterborough, ON.
“I was having a sketchy time living in the sketchy area,” Meredith said.
The contemporary folk/blues song is about her longing for the east end of the city. It’s on her latest album, From Here to the Sea, which was released Sept. 12. The album explores elements from rock-folk to old-time jazz.
Meredith says her music has evolved from “very roots-centric’” to her own personal sound.
“It’s more along the lines of everything I’ve ever absorbed from all of the music I’ve listened to and loved,” she said.
At the end of her set, Meredith and her fiddle player, Tony Allen, got up close and personal and cut the sound.
They stepped into the crowd, disconnected from the speakers and immersed the audience in a rendition of “Dry Bones,” an old folk and gospel song.
The audience followed Tony’s lead while Meredith took the bass line. As the audience learned together, music swelled through the church, and the performance received a standing ovation.
Audience member Mary Gick said Tony and Meredith’s number was her favourite part, “I love being able to hear everything kind of unadorned,” she said.
“And I loved Irish Millie, I loved that she’s so young, but she’s poised and has all the musical chops.”
Some stories begin with words, but hers began with a fiddle. At three years old, Irish Millie was drawn in by the Cape Breton style and by six, she already had a one in hand.
Nineteen-year-old Millie is the youngest performer at this year’s Ottawa Grassroots Festival, but her performance was far from second fiddle.
The award-winning musician performed a seven-song set featuring four original songs, two covers and a medley alongside her “best friend” and father, Murray Shadgett.
“One of my favourite things to do is play tunes with my dad,” she said.
The two opened by covering a song by We Banjo 3. While Millie jumped between singing and fiddling, Murray stayed steady, strumming his acoustic guitar while accompanying his daughter.
The energy between the two felt personal as they both grinned ear to ear through every song.
“Your dad being your best friend is kinda weird, but Murray and I have the best times,” Millie said.
Her first solo song of the evening, “Big Red,’ is also the first song on her 2024 album GRACE. She said the song was written in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic and took a long time to write, “But when it came out, I felt really awesome,” she said.
A lot of Millie’s inspiration comes from her family. Many of the tunes in her set, like “Joe’s tune,” and even her cover of “Zombie” by The Cranberries, are heavily influenced by family memories.
That also goes for her original song “Ghosts,” which was written as an homage to her older brother, John, who left for Toronto around 2024.
In the song, Millie says she wishes she could stay in the past, when she and her brother would “chase around the corner.” She said it was lonely without “Good brother John.”
The song says that if she and her brother had died and remained as ghosts, they could forever be spirits locked in a time of absolute joy.
“He was such a great older brother to me,” she said.
Until this day, “Ghosts” is Millie’s most listened to song on almost every streaming platform.
Although this performance has come to an end, Millie’s next show will be at Goderich Celtic Roots Festival this upcoming August.
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