Halifax’s Megan Banning never thought her music recordings from the 1980s would see the light of day.
That was until her son, Keenan Tamblyn in Toronto, brought her story to an American podcast.
“Just on a whim, I thought, well, why not? This is an interesting story. I’ll submit it. And I never expected to hear back,” Tamblyn said to CBC’s Information Morning.
“And I heard back almost right away and then a whirlwind few weeks happened where this show came together and my mom’s song … got uncovered.”
In the 1980s, Banning was an ambitious songwriter in her early 20s who worked as a server at Second City comedy club in Toronto. She dedicated hours every day to writing songs and playing the piano.
The musical director of Second City was friends with acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter k.d. lang and told Banning he would give her music recordings to lang.
Dashed dreams
But Banning never heard back from lang. After that, her music ambitions waned. She placed her recordings in unmarked boxes and changed directions.
Information Morning – NS13:25Son reawakens mother’s long-dashed music dreams and catches k.d. lang’s ear
For years, Keenan Tamblyn has wanted to know about his mother’s dreams of being a musician. When Megan Banning was younger she recorded music that never saw the light of day. With the help of an American podcast and Halifax musician Rich Aucoin that’s changed – and now k.d. lang wants to hear the songs! Hear why as the CBC’s Carsten Knox brings us the story.
“I just sold my piano. I went to Brazil for six weeks and came back and changed my course and I got into the film industry and that’s where I still am,” Banning said.
Tamblyn was aware of his mom’s musical abilities and that she wrote songs at one point in her life, but had never heard her recordings.
“I was intensely curious about it,” he said.
This led him to reach out to Hyperfixed, a podcast hosted by Adam Goldman, to help him get his mom’s recordings out of her basement and into the open.
Podcast producers gave Tamblyn less than a week to find the tapes before a live taping of the podcast in New York. This was all news to Banning, including requests for her to perform the songs at the taping.
Banning wasn’t interested in that part of it.
‘I shouldn’t have given up’
“I was speechless and kind of not in the mood,” she said. “I haven’t played in 40 years. Like, I haven’t touched a keyboard in years and my voice is nothing like it used to be.”
Eventually, a tape of her music was found at the bottom of a Tupperware container. With help from Rich Aucoin, a Halifax musician, some of Banning’s recorded music was digitized and played live by another musician at the podcast event.
“I never thought in a million years anyone would ever hear that song,” Banning said. “So it was a trip.”
Banning says hearing her songs again makes her wish she hadn’t stopped making music.
Renewed interest in music
“I look at that … 23-year-old girl that wrote those songs and I wish I could tell that 23-year-old girl that those songs were actually good and I … shouldn’t have given up,” said Banning.
For Tamblyn, hearing his mother’s music for the first time was an emotional experience.
“Knowing that my mom was such a good songwriter, it made it a much more emotional ordeal. And bringing her a sort of closure to this thing has been … I never thought it was going to be this big,” he said.
Tamblyn also reached out to k.d. lang about his mother’s music and she responded, expressing interest in hearing Banning’s music.
As Banning reconnects with her younger songwriter self, she feels newly inspired to take up the music she abandoned.
“I will start playing again and writing songs again,” she said. “Whether anyone ever hears them, I don’t know. But for me, I’ll do it because I really enjoy doing it.
“It was joy sitting at a piano and playing a piano, and I just haven’t had one for years and years and years and years. But for myself, I will do it and we’ll see where that takes me.”
