Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
Margo Macero has been rocking out her own original path for most of her young life. The Glens Falls grad, 33, asked for her first guitar at age 7, she recalls. She started playing out around the region and beyond at age 12 she says.
She’ll debut 13 songs from first full album at Putnam Place in Saratoga on Friday, Sept. 19. (Doors at 7, music at 8 p.m.) The album is due in 2026.
In 2023 Margo signed a two-album deal with manager David Bourgeios of Bridge Road Entertainment in Albany. The album, she worked on with new label-mates Jocelyn & Chris, acclaimed sibling blues-rockers from Fort Plain.
Margo’s own lineage is formidable — her late uncle Teo Macero was a producer credited with creating the Miles Davis sound. Her family’s Macero Restaurant on Broad Street was a hopping music venue hosting top acts in its day.
“From the time my mother was pregnant my dad (Dan) was always playing in bands, there were always rehearsals at the house, music was always on, always talked about,” Margo told The Chronicle.
The family moved to Lake Luzerne, then to a farmhouse in Vermont, with horsed — before moving back to their native Glens Falls, she recalls, about when she was in Middle School.
Margo says, “I had a hard time in school, and then I dressed like a boy, and I got picked on. I didn’t want to be in school. So I spent a lot of time skipping school and playing guitar in the basement. I started a band with my dad. I was the bass player for a while.”
She says, “My teachers, in an interesting way, they collaborated with me in the sense of asking me, ‘What’s going to get you to focus? Can we help you?’
“I just said music, music, music.
“They actually adapted a lot of my projects to music, like music history, music this and that. I could bring my guitar with me. It was a kind of identity.”
In high school, Margo credits then-music teacher Pam Granger, who encouraged her student, whatever the difficulties, “never lose your smile.”
She took this to heart. “It’s an inner safety thing. I love what I do. So I’m always — let’s go!”
She says she graduated, “by a hair,” and auditioned into Berklee College of Music in Boston, living on a tight shoestring, living off “donuts and pasta.”
After two sementers, she says, “I called my dad and said I want to come back, and I want to do a record. That was my first EP, with Bobby Howard, a Glens Falls name for sure.”
She’s tried out for talent competitions, American Idol and The Voice, and saw some success, “but I asked myself, What am I doing?” She lists jobs working as a background actor for Netflix, Hulu, other networks, and as a lighting set designer on James Franco’s film The Pretenders, all pre-pandemic, she recalls.
“I was also songwriting and still playing music, but nothing felt good to me in a way that was like, ‘Alright, this is it.’” Still young, she says, “You’re just trying to discover yourself.”
She was playing as many as 120 shows a year. “I could file my own taxes and had my own business where I was singing all the time, and that was great. I learned tons of music.”
The breakthrough she says is a country-leaning song she co-wrote, called “There Goes My Heart.”
“I remember thinking, wow, I don’t know where that came from, but that’s it.”
She co-wrote her new album with Jocelyn and Chris, after the pandemic and then while recovering from serious injuries she sustained to her jaw when her car was rear-ended in a parking lot.
“There’s a theme around this debut album, based on the color red,” she says. “That may seem strange. I interpret it as passion, courage, boldness, bravery. It’s just powerful. The record is very aggressive, and sassy in a way.”
“I’m 150 million percent ready to gift the record to the world, I’m just so proud and happy about it.”
Shannon Tehya & The Troupe, who recently played with Marc Vincent at The Strand in Hudson Falls, open the show. Tix: $30, $20 advance.
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