More About Margaret

As a solo pop singer appearing across the United States and in Europe, Margaret produced two albums of original songs, Better Days and Margaret Wakeley. With a natural ability to combine singing and storytelling, Margaret’s forte was to weave her songs into compelling narratives that bring meaning to her audiences. Later in her career, cabaret became her milieu. She created and performed cabarets for regional audiences, including many benefit performances for worthwhile causes. In so doing, Margaret recorded two well-received CDs of her favorite covers and original tunes, Quality Times and Perfect Strangers. 

Traveling endlessly for her singing gigs, Margaret would listen hour after hour to Books on Tape, being especially captivated when the reader was really good. She was thus inspired to get some training in acting and voice over technique, which culminated in being signed with the Herb Tannen Agency in Los Angeles and a new sideline career as a voice actor.

Eventually, Margaret wanted to get off the road and settle down. After marrying and moving to Seattle, she had two sons; parenting took precedence over performing. Like most parents, she read to her boys every night. But reading aloud to her audience of two grew into something much more when it became clear that her older boy, Casey, was blind. Imparting the visual world to Casey with her voice was a constant in her life, becoming as natural to her as breathing. Reading books, signs, manuals, describing action in movies and virtually everything in a world Casey could not see for himself became Margaret’s most important gig. She was an “audio-descriptive” mom.

Another highlight of Margaret’s remarkably diverse career was the thirteen years she spent most recently working with the international nonprofit, A Network for Grateful Living (gratefulness.org), based on the seminal writings and teachings of Brother David Steindl-Rast. Margaret’s work was to help manage this interactive website, serving many thousands of people across the world. Facilitating healing connections with people on a global scale through spiritual messaging for daily life has been a labor of love for Margaret, a cause to which she remains deeply committed.

 A not surprising coda to Margaret’s own career is that her son Casey, and his younger brother Sam, inherited their mother’s musical gifts and passions, and today are principal performers in the critically acclaimed rock group X Ambassadors. With several platinum records to their credit and fans and concert audiences throughout the world, Margaret’s talented sons prove the adage that apples don’t fall far from the tree. Like their mother, Sam and Casey Harris have built their award-winning songbook in keeping with their own deeply-held social and human worldview, through which X Ambassadors makes intense musical connections with their audiences.

 From singing to cabaret storytelling, to learning the powerful value of the spoken word with her blind son, becoming a voice actor has been an organic progression for Margaret. Whether using her vocal skills to entertain, describe, educate, soothe, excite, or touch your heart, Margaret’s experienced voice will most certainly meet your needs.