Meg Hentges

In 1992, Meg Hentges began recording as a solo artist, releasing an EP and a full-length album on the Portland, Oregon indie label Tim/Kerr Records. It was a track from these sessions, an early version of the song "This Kind of Love," that attracted the unlikely attention of Cory Robbins (co-founder of Profile Records who had discovered such rap superstars as Run-DMC, Rob Base, and DJ Quik). In searching for a producer who could bring out the best in Hentges, she and Robbins approached Adam Schlesinger, a member of the bands Fountains of Wayne and Ivy, who had also recently been nominated for an Academy Award for his title song of the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do. Schlesinger was so mesmerized by Hentges' work that they began recording together. In Hentges' songs, you can feel the influence of Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and maybe a slight twist of '80s rocker Pat Benatar. Hentges is a true student of pop music history, yet has managed to develop a voice that is unmistakably her own.