Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan & Martha Meggison Of Arco & Reed.
Hi Bryan & Martha Meggison of Arco & Reed, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Bryan:
When I was a toddler, my mom was a church organist and pianist, and I used to hide under the organ during service while my mom played. Later on, my grandparents started their own church and the church band primarily consisted of my mom on piano/vocals, my aunt on vocals, my dad on bass, my brother on guitar, and me on drums. That was a really special time for me because I feel like it was where I developed my character and my deep passion for music. Even though I was playing drums at church, I was also taking piano lessons and learning about music theory. When I got to sixth grade, I started playing saxophone and really switched my focus and passion to that. At that point, I stopped playing drums at the church and switched to saxophone. Our church didn’t provide any sheet music, so I had to learn how to improvise to play with them. In my search to become a better improviser, I discovered jazz and started studying the culture and language and developed a new love for it while still maintaining my love for gospel music. While I was in high school, my parents took my brother and I to Dallas to visit our aunt and uncle and they took us to a jazz club called the brick room. There was a fantastic saxophonist named Tom Braxton playing there and I was mesmerized. On his break, he took the time to come say hello to me and was very warm and friendly. Afterwards he got back on stage and told the audience that he was going to dedicate the next song to his new friend “Bryan “. He then proceeded to shred and duel with his equally talented pianist which created an experience I don’t think anyone in that room will ever forget. It was at that moment when I turned to my parents and said that playing jazz was what I wanted to do the rest of my life. At that point, I started taking jazz saxophone lessons and decided to go to the university of North Texas to study jazz more in depth. During my time there, I realized how small the world I came from was, and how much incredible talent there was outside my hometown of McAllen, TX. I got to experience the birth of Snarky Puppy of which many of their founding members went to U.N.T. with me, and got to witness many of their mind blowing shows, along with other incredible bands in the DFW area such as the Funky Knuckles, Ghost Note, Leon Bridges, and Erykah Badu’s band, RC and the Grits. Another crazy story when I think back about it is that me and three friends grew and gained experience together playing in a coffee shop every week for about three years for the pure passion of the music. As it turned out, one by one they all moved to Nashville, and I saw their careers takeoff in the most delightful ways. All of them currently have steady gigs playing with very well-known artists. I feel somewhat as though I’m a late bloomer since I didn’t move to Nashville until about 10 years later, but I’m glad I did. It has been an extremely difficult road, but I truly believe that with every difficulty that comes your way, you get a chance to grow and become a better version of yourself. My hope and moving to Nashville was to play saxophone with touring artists that I enjoy listening to and hanging with. Even though I haven’t come across any full-time opportunities yet, I’m grateful to have played with Leon Bridges, Dustin Lynch, Danny Gokey, and TobyMac during my time as a professional musician, and those have been major highlights in my life so far.
Speaking of highlights of my life, one of the greatest joys in my life has meeting Martha, developing our relationship, and marrying her in January 2025. She has been a true blessing from God, and I’m so thankful for her. I’m gonna let her say a few words about her life before we talk about Arco & Reed.
Martha:
Thank you! Well, I’m from Honduras and my native language is Spanish so I apologize if my English is not perfect, but I will do my best to tell you my story. I started playing the violin at 11 years old, and my mom enrolled me in a music school. I was neutral in which instrument to pick in that time, so I just picked the violin because I knew my mom liked it and I think it was one of the best decisions in my life! Thank you Mom! I remember that in school, my violin teacher put on a video of a concert of Yanni the Greek composer, and I loved the entire concert. The part that caught me was the violins playing “Summer” by Vivaldi, but they were playing an electronic version, and I fell in love. So during my time at the school of music, I remember enjoying a lot playing in the Symphony Orchestra and we had a tour all around Honduras playing Latin American music. Getting to travel and play music at 15 years old was amazing to me. I couldn’t imagine enjoying doing anything else with my life than being a musician. Playing the violin has given me opportunities to travel to different places and countries like Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala Mexico, and USA. During my 20s, I applied for different music camps, and I had the opportunity to meet people from different countries and learn a lot from them and other professors with a lot of knowledge and skills. Those camps were so fun because we spent two weeks together and got to play all day in the orchestra, chamber music, and master classes. It was also fun to make new friends and learn the funny slangs of each country and enjoy musician parties after the final concert.
Then many of my friends moved to other countries to become more successful in music. Some of them moved to Europe, South America, and the U.S. and that was a goal for me as well. I decided to apply to Austin Peay State University in Clarksville where I got my masters degree. Moving to the US has been the most challenging thing that I have done in my life, because I had to learn and adapt to a new culture and a new language. I remember that at my first classes at APSU, I couldn’t understand anything, but my professors were very patient and kind with me, then little by little my English improved. I had to work very hard to be able to get through the school and I had many nights of no sleep and studying hard. But I feel so proud of myself for being able to accomplish my dream to finish school. During my last semester at APSU, I met Bryan through Facebook and we started chatting and our conversations flowed so naturally between us. I remember for some of our dates he brought some jazz books with tracks and we were just playing duets and jamming together. I love the fact that Bryan has always encouraged me to learn new skills. Since I grew up being a classical violinist, I was more used to reading charts than improvising. I love how we each have our own unique musical strengths and how they complement each other in our wedding/event company.
I’m very grateful to marry him. The fact that we share the same passion for music and faith makes our bond incredibly tight and rewarding. Before meeting each other, we had unique personal life goals. Bryan’s goal was to tour with artists, and my goal was to play with a world class Symphony under an accomplished conductor like Gustavo Dudamel. Both of us still have dreams of accomplishing these things, but it has been an unexpected blessing to start our wedding music business Arco & Reed. We both feel like we get to do what we love and play with our best friend.
Bryan:
Yes, that’s totally true. Ever since hearing the Dave Matthews Band when I was a kid, I have loved the sound of saxophone and violin with funky back beat music. Martha and I have been working hard creating our own unique sax/violin arrangements of popular music and have created our own company called Arco & Reed to provide clients with the sounds we’ve been working on. A lot of people ask us how what “Arco & Reed” means and if those are our stage names etc. Basically “Arco” is the bow of the violin which helps create the vibrations in the strings to give the violin it’s signature sound, and “Reed” is the thin piece of wood (cane) attached to the mouthpiece that is responsible for the unique tone of the saxophone. The goal of our company is to provide musical entertainment for weddings and all sorts of private events that want to add class and sophistication to their vibe.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I would say it’s been anything but a smooth road. Both Martha and I agree that living in Nashville has been very challenging. Some of the struggles we have dealt with would include being offered extremely low pay from local artists due to the oversaturation of musicians in the city, being taken advantage of, and seldom being appreciated for what we do. It seems like no matter how good you are, there are always people telling you that you need to be more. For example, if you are a world class musician, they might say “yeah, but can you sing?”. Then if you learn to sing, they might say “yeah, but can you play mandolin?” or something like that. One thing we have learned, is that no matter how much you can do, there will always be people trying to discredit you for what you can’t do. But like I said before, every negative experience you have is an opportunity to take it with a grain of salt, and figure out the elements you can take from it to make you grow, and then throw out the parts that won’t. I think everyone moves to Nashville hoping that someone will give them a big break. One of the biggest life lessons we’ve learned is to be willing to believe in and invest heavily into yourself and grow your own brand. When you meet people along the way whose goals and personalities align with yours, cherish them and do your best to help them too, but never stop working on yourself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Bryan:
For artist and passion gigs, I am generally known as a utility player (sax, clarinet, flute, keys, bass, and guitar), but my specialty is on saxophone. My most exciting and proud moment was when I got to play sax/piano/guitar with TobyMac for a few shows. TobyMac was literally the first artist I ever owned a piece of musical media of (back then it was a cassette tape of his then band D.C. Talk), and to play with him was the honor of a lifetime for me. As far as what sets me a part, I don’t really know ha ha. When it comes to talent, everyone in Nashville has it. I guess maybe one thing is that when people hire me for a gig, they can depend on me to be there and not cancel on them for a better gig. I remember one time losing out on a gig playing at Red Rocks (which still haunts me to this day) to play a low paying gig that I had already committed to.
Martha and I also have our luxury musical entertainment business Arco & Reed that we also enjoy very much, and we take the care for our clients very serioulsy. How about you Martha?
Martha:
I am primarily a classical violinist who enjoys playing with symphonies. The thing I am currently most proud of is overcoming my fears by leaving my comfort zone and making the move to Nashville to continue my growth as a musician.
Bryan:
One thing I can say about Martha that sets her apart is that she’s one of the hardest working musicians I know, she has the best attitude of anyone I’ve ever worked with, and she is very well rounded as a violinist and can play styles from classical to jazz, R&B to Country, and Gospel to Afrobeats. That’s why she does so well playing for many of the multicultural weddings and events that we do. It also helps that she’s bilingual!
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Yes absolutely. To anyone in your audience who is considering moving to Nashville because they think it will make their life easier as a musician… I would submit that it will most definitely not make your life easier. I think moving to Nashville or any other big musical hub like L.A., N.Y.C. etc. will be a refinining fire that will either destroy you or force you to improve every aspect of your life in order to make it. My advice would be to practice hard and consistently, get established and successful where you are first, and then save up a lot of money before you move. Also, invest in yourself heavily. I’ve invested so much time and energy into other people’s bands and projects thinking it would pay off someday just to get dropped as soon as the band signs with a label. Invest in reading books about your craft, about business, website development, etc. and try to make yourself indispensable. Also, always treat others the way you want to be treated.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.arcoandreed.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcoandreed
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576751361441
