Maygen & the Birdwatcher play three songs from 'The Americana Dream'
by Mike Pengra
September 25, 2025
Minnesota band Maygen & the Birdwatcher's second full-length album, The Americana Dream, is set to release on October 10, 2025. Ahead of the album's release, the band visited The Current studio to preview three songs from the album in this live session for Radio Heartland, hosted by Mike Pengra.
After the music session, band members Maygen Lacey and Noah Neumann had a conversation with Radio Heartland’s Mike Pengra about how this latest album came together, and about how they strive to transcend a particular category of music.
Watch and listen to the performances above, and find the interview video and transcript below.
Interview Transcript
Mike Pengra: I get to be in the studio with my friends in Maygen and the Birdwatcher, Maygen and Noah. Nice to see you guys again.
Noah Neumann: Howdy.
Maygen Lacey: Thanks for having us.
Mike Pengra: Congratulations on your new record.
Noah Neumann: Thank you!
Mike Pengra: The Americana Dream. And I was just listening to this record a couple times through, and there's such a variety on here, I can see why you call it The Americana Dream. There's a real variety of songs on here.
Noah Neumann: We get bored easily. We have, yeah, we have a lot of influences, and we like to just try things and change things up. And, you know, try to have kind of some of those, like, those few through lines that we find, and we're like, these will be in all the songs. And then we think of like, "Where can we go from there? What kind of goulash can we make and mix it all together?" And it's a little crazy when it's happening, but I think it, I think it turned out.
Maygen Lacey: Yeah.
Noah Neumann: I think it turns out, yeah.
Maygen Lacey: Especially the way we ordered the tracks. I feel super happy about that. It took us forever to figure out, "How do we put all these songs on one record?"
Mike Pengra: Yeah, right.
Maygen Lacey: But yeah, think it worked out.
Mike Pengra: And so I read you guys took more time and were more deliberate about picking the songs and arranging the songs and writing together and things like that. How do you, where do you find time to do that?
Maygen Lacey: Oh, man. Geez.
Mike Pengra: And how do you do it?
Maygen Lacey: Well, the fact that it's taken this long, that's kind of partially why we've been so busy playing live shows and touring and going out west and southeast and all of that. So, like, also writing. So that's why, like, I mean, we started recording this album three years ago? Two-and-a-half years ago? With John Fields, and so it's been, like, little piece by little piece, you know, and then we really kind of dug in this past winter and did a whole bunch. So, you know, winter, we really don't do much live shows in winter. So we got that done.
Noah Neumann: Song specific, as far as, like, when do we find the time? I probably, before I even sit down with a guitar, I probably spend five-ish hours writing; you know, in the shower, in a car, something like that, make a voice note, things like that, and do a lot of crafting before I even try to, like, finalize what that song would be like, you know? So it's like, it's just kind of like, here and there, when we pick things up, you know?
Mike Pengra: Do you finish each other's songs sometimes?
Noah Neumann: Kind of, yeah. It's, I've always described, like one person is kind of constructing the house and the other person is picking up the wallpaper kind of a thing, you know what I mean?
Maygen Lacey: Yeah.
Noah Neumann: So we do that. Some things we share a little bit more than others, and some we kind of like, "This is your one thing, and this is my kind of one thing," but...
Maygen Lacey: Sometimes I kick down a wall and, like, build a different wall.
Noah Neumann: You do. You have done that a couple of times, yes.
Mike Pengra: You mentioned working with John Fields. How has working with an experienced producer changed your process of making a record?
Noah Neumann: The other ones we did in, like, a day, or a day or two where we, like, walked in with the whole band and we're like, "We're gonna hit this all right now."
Maygen Lacey: And we had been playing those songs as a band already for a long time, and they were tight and—
Noah Neumann: Right.
Maygen Lacey: Yeah.
Noah Neumann: But this was where we really wanted to take the, I guess, kind of a risk, and say, you know, these songs were in their infancy when we kind of opened them up to John and brought them and worked on them together, and doing it that way, and just kind of slowly crafting them and kind of learning them, like, in the studio, as opposed to, like on the stage and things like that. And it's different, and it's, I think, that we're always trying to kind of challenge the way we've done things before and say, you know, yeah, like, what we've done before has worked. What we've done before has sounded good. But what else is there? What other ways are there for us to do this? So this one was this kind of complete 180 switch. But I think it worked out really well. I mean, it was, it's a lot of work, but I'm really happy with kind of working, the three of us, making this work.
Maygen Lacey: Yeah, it was great, because we were able to just start with the bones of a song and say, "OK, what instruments do we want on this song?" Rather than like, "OK, we're a band. We've got these instruments. Let's make a song." You know, like, "Gates of Heaven" has, like, you know, a gospel choir and just like a whole bunch of stuff that we wouldn't normally ever come up with, you know, in a room together with our band.
Mike Pengra: Well, the few songs you've played today were definitely from different genres, it felt like. Especially the final song was, I heard Little Feat all the way through. It was so funky.
Noah Neumann: That makes me happy.
Mike Pengra: It's a different sound for you guys, I think, since the last time I heard you.
Noah Neumann: Yeah, we like to be able to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I think it's fun for us. It lets us also kind of chameleon a little bit to, you know, what kind of festival are we on? What kind of club are we in? Things like that. Not that it's not all, it is all us. It's all unique to us. But it's also fun to kind of wear a different hat some nights.
Maygen Lacey: Yeah, it's, it's nice to be able to play like a listening room and then go play a big festival and then play a bar and just have different sets and, you know, draw different kinds of fans, or whatever, you know, whatever suits where we're playing.
Noah Neumann: It's great when artists can, like, find that one sound, and they just do that all the time. But for us, it's like, I would get bored, you know. I need to switch it up.
Mike Pengra: This is the second time I've talked to you guys. The first was after your first LP was done. Then you did a couple of EPs, some singles, and now this is your second full album. I feel like you've come a long way in your sound just by listening. It's really matured a lot.
Maygen Lacey: Thank you. Yeah, we feel like we've been doing it forever, but it's only been, what? Five years since the very beginning of being a band. So yeah.
Noah Neumann: I think we were kind of, like, figuring out, like, we had a pretty good idea of, like, what we wanted our sound to be. But it's kind of like we were, like, learning what, where we stood in, like, this kind of Americana, grassy realm. That was what we were doing before. And now we're kind of like saying, like, "OK, we have this platform. Where else can that take us? What else can that be?" And that's kind of goes in the name of the album as well. But like, "What else can this look like?"
Mike Pengra: When you play such a variety of styles of music, do you feel like you get booked into the wrong room or the wrong festival sometimes? Or is it just an asset to have all of that?
Maygen Lacey: Overall, I would say, maybe. Maybe, like, one or two have felt maybe a bit off.
Mike Pengra: "We don't belong here."
Maygen Lacey: Yeah, like they, like, there was a festival that might have heard a rockin' song and then maybe weren't expecting, like, the tender Maygen singing "Antidote," you know, or whatever.
Mike Pengra: But that's the good part.
Maygen Lacey: Thanks! Well, yeah, sometimes it's nice to surprise people, or to just take them off guard and say, "Well, we do this too," or, "This is also us." But, you know, sometimes when you're in a live setting, it's a little tough to adjust, but...
Noah Neumann: And I think it's hard to, like, for some people and, like, other bands or bookers, to like, know what we are exactly. We don't, like, you know, we can't always slide in easily, like, "Oh yeah. They're a perfect fit with this."
Maygen Lacey: "They should open up for this national act."
Noah Neumann: "They sound just like that." So that kind of means we have to kind of forge our own path a little bit and kind of find that space and make that space for ourselves.
Maygen Lacey: Yeah.
Mike Pengra: So what's next for you guys? What's another album down the road? Are you already writing songs for your next record, maybe?
Maygen Lacey: Yeah, we do have more songs.
Noah Neumann: These songs that we've done are like old hat now. We've been done with these songs for forever.
Maygen Lacey: We still have — yeah, so the record coming out, and then winter is a break.
Noah Neumann: A little bit. For like a month, we'll take a break.
Maygen Lacey: Yeah.
Noah Neumann: Get back at it, do some traveling.
Maygen Lacey: Yeah, we'll go out to Colorado and all that. We really love, kind of the whole Colorado scene. We'll do that in January, and then see what summer brings. You know, we got to do a whole bunch more festival submissions and see, kind of, depending on if you get a festival, then it kind of directs where you go sometimes for summer tour.
Noah Neumann: It's hard to think, because this album has been everything for like, a year. So it's hard to be like, "What is life after this?"
Maygen Lacey: I think we'll live with this baby for a while.
Mike Pengra: It's almost like having a child, isn't it?
Maygen Lacey: Yeah, totally.
Noah Neumann: Now it's here. OK!
Mike Pengra: Well, congratulations on this record. It's great. I'm really proud of you guys for all the stuff you've gone over through the years and how you've grown as a band, and you sound great.
Noah Neumann: Thank you.
Maygen Lacey: Thank you.
Mike Pengra: Thanks for being here.
Maygen Lacey: Thanks for having us.
Songs Performed
00:00:00 All I Know (This Love)
00:03:48 Diamonds in the Bluff
00:07:55 Tokin’ on the Holy Ghost
All songs from Maygen & the Birdwatcher’s 2025 album, The Americana Dream, available on Missing Piece Records.
Musicians
Maygen Lacey - lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Noah Neumann - lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Jesse Moravec - mandolin, harmony vocals
Joe Barron - upright bass, electric bass
Peter Anderson - drums
Evin Haukos - fiddle
Credits
Guests – Maygen & the Birdwatcher
Host/Producer – Mike Pengra
Video – Evan Clark
Audio – Eric Xu Romani
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor
External Link
Maygen & the Birdwatcher – official site
