Mery Steel writes songs that land like weather—you feel the pressure change before the first chord sounds. Rooms go quiet when she plays. They don't stay that way.

Born in Toronto and based in Columbus, Steel spent nearly two decades as a hired gun before starting her own project in 2019. The songs she's written since run on the charge between the wild human interior and the cage that contains it: love, work, the slow injury of a world built to use people up, and what it costs to stay yourself inside it.

Her guitar-driven sound moves from sinuous alt-country tearjerkers to breezy pop bops to blues-rock rippers. You might catch Jennifer Warnes or Loretta Lynn in the vocals, but she'll growl on the mic as readily as she’ll croon.

Her debut, She's Back, landed New Year's Day 2024. Supported by the Greater Columbus Arts Council and cut live with her band, her second record Dust blows into town Spring 2027. Solo or with a band, the result is the same: the work of an artist who knows her path and walks it without permission.