Facebook post.<\/a><\/p>\nShe said an ocotillo\u2019s spikes are like a human\u2019s personal boundaries; they protect what\u2019s inside.<\/p>\n
Meredith says, \u201cWe should learn from [the ocotillo],\u201d and it seems like she already has.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the interview, Meredith said she\u2019s on a path to find what\u2019s true to her. \u201cEvery day I check in with myself, and I ask myself, \u2018Is [music] what I am here to do?\u2019 and the answer is always yes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But too much of anything can wear you down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI never want music to become a job where I\u2019m forced to do it every single day, every moment of the day,\u201d said Meredith in the interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She used Joni Mitchell\u2019s term \u201ccrop rotation\u201d to explain how she balances her wants and needs with demands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On days when Meredith isn\u2019t drawn to music, she\u2019ll paint instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about going [what] you feel posed to make art at that time,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With that balance in mind, Meredith always finds her way back.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic for me will never lose its magic. It will never lose its healing power,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her song \u201cEast City Blues\u201d was written when she needed comfort while living in the west end of Peterborough, ON.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was having a sketchy time living in the sketchy area,\u201d Meredith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The contemporary folk\/blues song is about her longing for the east end of the city. It\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meredith says her music has evolved from \u201cvery roots-centric\u2019\u201d to her own personal sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more along the lines of everything I\u2019ve ever absorbed from all of the music I\u2019ve listened to and loved,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the end of her set, Meredith and her fiddle player, Tony Allen, got up close and personal and cut the sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They stepped into the crowd, disconnected from the speakers and immersed the audience in a rendition of \u201cDry Bones,\u201d an old folk and gospel song.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The audience followed Tony\u2019s lead while Meredith took the bass line. As the audience learned together, music swelled through the church, and the performance received a standing ovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Audience member Mary Gick said Tony and Meredith\u2019s number was her favourite part, \u201cI love being able to hear everything kind of unadorned,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I loved Irish Millie, I loved that she\u2019s so young, but she\u2019s poised and has all the musical chops.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nineteen-year-old Millie is the youngest performer at this year\u2019s Ottawa Grassroots Festival, but her performance was far from second fiddle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The award-winning musician performed a seven-song set featuring four original songs, two covers and a medley alongside her \u201cbest friend\u201d and father, Murray Shadgett.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my favourite things to do is play tunes with my dad,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The energy between the two felt personal as they both grinned ear to ear through every song.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYour dad being your best friend is kinda weird, but Murray and I have the best times,\u201d Millie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her first solo song of the evening, \u201cBig Red,\u2019 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, \u201cBut when it came out, I felt really awesome,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lot of Millie\u2019s inspiration comes from her family. Many of the tunes in her set, like \u201cJoe\u2019s tune,\u201d and even her cover of \u201cZombie\u201d by The Cranberries, are heavily influenced by family memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That also goes for her original song \u201cGhosts,\u201d which was written as an homage to her older brother, John, who left for Toronto around 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the song, Millie says she wishes she could stay in the past, when she and her brother would \u201cchase around the corner.\u201d She said it was lonely without \u201cGood brother John.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was such a great older brother to me,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Until this day, \u201cGhosts\u201d is Millie\u2019s most listened to song on almost every streaming platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although this performance has come to an end, Millie\u2019s next show will be at Goderich Celtic Roots Festival this upcoming August.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rabbit\u2019s foot hung from her banjo, tied with a baby-pink string. Many believe the amulet brings luck.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":{"0":"post-630485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-ottawa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Tony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_3216-640x480.jpg\" "\\"Tony")
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