How to describe the Musers in one sentence? Let me try: They are a quirky, uber-talented band of middle-aged hippies from Northern California who want to change the world one smile at a time, while having the best time doing it. Their songs and entertaining music videos range the gamut from silly and sweet to deep and moving. I was delighted to chat with Megan McLaughlin, lead singer, guitar player and songwriter, about the band ahead of their show in Bend on Saturday, June 14.
the Source: First of all, your song, “Pot o’ Beans” has been running through my head for a week now! It’s so much fun. Can you talk about the origin of this song?
Megan McLaughlin: I live on a piece of land with my husband and my good friend Rob, and Rob is a great cook. He taught me that you can feed the whole family for about five bucks with a bag of beans. I just literally wrote down the recipe in a song and it’s very true to life, that very often on a Sunday I’ll put on a pot of beans before I go out and then come home… and really all you have to do is make a salad, slice the bread and boom! Dinner’s ready.
tS: I love it. So how long have the Musers been together as a musical group?
MM: This spring is eight years. I lived in Oakland previously and I was a teacher in my other life. I taught kindergarten and first grade for 28 years and then in 2017 I kind of hit the wall and decided I might be done. So, I had a talk with my husband, and we moved up here, remodeled a house and I started a band. So, the band was formed by myself, Anita Bear Sandwina and Tom Kuhn. Anita is a prolific songwriter and instrumentalist. We call her our Swiss Army knife, but she’s actually on a hiatus right now and we hope that she comes back. For our current lineup we have Leslie Jackson on mandolin, cajon and backing vocals [along with Megan and Tom on stand-up bass].
tS: What do you love about making music?
MM: The joy of performing and bringing smiles to people’s faces. I really love songwriting, I’ve been at it quite a while. When I finish a song, I feel happy, and I try to write a song a month. That’s my goal… they’re not all keepers, but you’ve got to keep going. And my bandmates are just the best people, and we honestly have a really great time together. We always enjoy playing together and hanging out together… for instance, this Saturday we are all going for a bike ride together, so it’s kind of a chosen family.
tS: Your music videos on YouTube are so much fun and I love how unpretentious you all are, such as when you dressed up like bees on your song “The Bees Keep Me.” Who comes up with these creative ideas for your videos?
MM: Our videographer’s name is Sebastian Saint James. He’s a singer/songwriter in the area and this is kind of his side hustle, and he’s so darn good at it. He directed “The Bees Keep Me,” written by Anita, but he also directed “Turn It On,” which is the title track of our third album, and it’s about depression and suicide. So, it’s quite a different vibe but it’s still about hope.
tS: Your song, “How You Being” hit me as being remarkably heartfelt and deep, especially the chorus:
Everybody asks me how I’m doing
I’m doing the doing just fine
But what I wonder is how you being
How you being in your heart
How you being in your mind
Can you talk about how this song came about?
MM: That was written by Anita and she wrote that during COVID. She’s a teacher and at that point she was teaching on Zoom all day, every day, and her medium was ceramics… can you imagine? So, for her, she was trying to get through to these kids with a camera on, and some of them were pointing the camera at the ceiling. They were just like, “I’m not doing this. I have to, but I’m not doing it.” And she said, “In COVID I decided there was nothing else that I could control, except how I was reacting to life.” So that was where this lyric came from.
tS: How do you describe your style of music?
MM: We call it free range folk because it wanders around pecking at everything. So, you’ll hear some Celtic-inspired music, some bluesy, some jazzy stuff… you will not be bored. And then we have surprising covers that will definitely get you dancing. It’s music that makes you happy but also makes you think. We’ve got some political songs and some social justice songs, but they’re not dogmatic and pushing stuff down your throat. They’re not all silly songs but we try and make sure that the audience is going to have a great time.
tS: In your wildest dreams, where are the Musers in five years?
MM: Oh, touring nationally and playing Red Rocks!
tS: I noticed you have a dragonfly on your band logo. Is there some significance with a dragonfly to the band?
MM: Yeah, there is actually. Besides, it’s super cool looking. We all came to this band when we were in our fifties and the dragonfly is a creature that spends the first half of its life in the mud as a larva, and then it spreads its wings and flies away and is beautiful. And we thought that was a nice analogy to us middle-aged people forming a band, touring and making records. Everybody’s like, really? You want to do that?
This article appears in Source Weekly June 12, 2025.
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