This week DeBraun profiles multi-instrumentalist Maggie Lander.
Maggie Lander is a multi-instrumentalist from Henry County Kentucky who moved to Lexington in 2014. Lander grew up on a farm and at age 11, she spent most of her time learning classical music before transitioning to bluegrass and by age 16 she was already playing music professionally. While she had many gigs under her belt, Lander says she got her musical start in Lexington playing on a local music show.
“I started playing a lot of bluegrass shows in my teens and barn dances and wasn’t really playing a whole lot of guitar or singing at that point, it was mostly all fiddle, and then I went to a Woodsongs and I remember going up to Michael, I think I was like 17 and I was like ‘I wanna play on Woodsongs’ and I had my fiddle that day because I had a violin lesson and he was like ‘is that your fiddle? Break it out’ and so I played and he was like ‘alright come back next Monday’ and I ended up playing on Woodsongs for, gosh, probably 3 or 4 years.”
Since leaving Woodsongs, Lander has become well known within the local music community for her talent and versatility. While she can be seen as a backing musician in many different bands, she says playing music is most satisfying the more diverse it is.
“I love to collaborate, I love to be the person kind of on the side that is helping what the person up front is doing, making that better, adding to that, I love doing that, I also love singing my songs and leading my band and it’s been scary, after being a collaborator for so many years, to actually stand up and lead something is empowering and scary at the same time, but I think that music is all about collaboration, it’s all about sharing, it’s all about doing what you do with other people and helping them be better and they make you better in the end too.”
That collaboration has led to a new project called The Landers. The band plays her original music and puts Lander up front. As an artist, Lander says it a new step she’s been working towards a very long time.
“There’s a safety net in knowing that I feel ready for it and that we’ve worked really hard on the material and we haven’t just thrown it together and played a gig two weeks later, we were hunkered down and toys in the attic before we played our first gig, I’d rather do something well and have it take more time than jump into something and not put on a good show.”
Maggie Lander performs with The Patrick McNeese Band, Alma Gitana, Will Solomon, and the Landers. The Landers will be performing on June 5th Natasha’s. More information about Lander and her projects can be found on facebook.
