BC songbird Beverley McKeen combines insightfully emotional lyrics about subjects spanning the environment and sodality to heartbreak and haywire relationships.
McKeen’s muse graces her two gentle rock-roots CDs On Purpose, and Poetic Wax.
Socially outspoken McKeen is often heard with bassist-Producer Martyn Jones and other polished players during a raft of coastal gigs.
Beverley McKeen is a published poet, as part of the American Poetry Anthology, 1989. She began writing and singing her own songs at 17 when McKeen bought her first guitar for $25.
Having studied Royal Conservatory of Music for 8 years, she already had a strong foundation for musical composition. Beverley's classical training often comes through in the complexity and unpredictability of her melody structures. Superbly catchy lyrics and chord patterns are a hallmark of Beverley McKeen's songwriting.
Originally from New Brunswick, and United Kingdom descendants McKeen says some of the “eastern seaboard” influence weaves its way through her music. Provocative styles to peg down into set genres, Beverley McKeen’s compositions often defy the norm. While they are not standard style songs they are profoundly catchy. Countless times she has been told that listeners find themselves with one of her tunes “stuck” in their head. This is just one of many musical inspirations, McKeen says.
She was compelled to write lyrics and compose for piano and guitar starting in her early teen years. It is in her genes, and her bones, she muses. Music and arts runs deep in the McKeen/Donovan clans. A late Uncle, Graham McKeen, a jazz music boulevardier befriended Greenwich Village haints Kerouac, Mailer and Ginsberg. Beverley says she inherited a hint of jazz from her Uncle Graham. She was writing poetry very early in life, before it became connected with her musical talents. McKeen’s mother, Ruth, solely supported her formal piano studies for almost a decade, until a guitar was easier to pack around as she grew older.
During her career she has often written for themes such as birthday, retirement, wedding, political event, anniversary, you name it; McKeen has been asked to write a song or poem to perform or read. She says she enjoys the challenge of writing on demand, about something specific, and digs into researching her subject matter for accuracy. Songwriting is Beverley McKeen’s gift, as she puts it. She feels humbled and grateful for the support she receives from so many of her friends, old and new and yet to be encountered!!
Other notable contributions by Beverley includes helping organize Tsunami Aid in January 2005, hosting the "Heart of the Matter" musical benefit for heart transplant recipient Tina Andersen in Feb. 08, and spearheading the "Groove for Food" challenge in Duncan. She also the songwriter for the "Save Cowichan Lodge" song.
Beverley has opened for Willie P. Bennett and Luther Wright and the Wrongs, and the Mahones, showing she is more than capable of keeping up with some high profile headlining acts.