I first met Meredith Moon about seven years ago when we shared a stage at a fundraiser in downtown Toronto, Ontario. As she sat there picking on a banjo I was instantly drawn to her authenticity and her connection to roots music. It was refreshing to see someone so young keeping that music alive.
At that time i had no idea that her Dad was Gordon Lightfoot, not that it made a difference to her obvious talent, but the music lineage was being carried on in fine fashion.
I asked Meredith how she got into Appalachian banjo music she said, “I was really drawn to that music with it’s raw honesty and generic sound. During the Folk revival I went down the rabbit hole and started getting into the origins of this music and was captivated by it. I started listening to Odetta and Elizabeth Cotton and all those field recordings. I’d been playing guitar since I was about 14 and at around 20 I decided to teach myself banjo and got into that whole Appalachian roots feel.”