Hope MacGregor’s first love was music. If you’d have run across her grandmother in the grocery store, she would have told you that Hope could sing the entirety of The Sound of Music before she could speak a full sentence. Hope began writing her own material at fifteen and playing with a small band of friends in her corn-fed, midwestern hometown. She tried to convince her parents to let her drop out of high school to head to Nashville, but their collective wisdom forbade it.

And then, in 2007, the Army came calling. Hope answered. She reported to the United States Military Academy to join the class of 2011. She branched aviation and reported to flight school upon graduation. Then, in October 2012, Hope pinned on her wings as an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot.

Hope reported to Ft. Campbell, where she served with the 101st Airborne Division. She deployed as a Scout Helicopter platoon leader to Bagram, Afghanistan. Upon returning, she headed east to Ft. Liberty. Then, after eight years of active duty service, Hope decided it was time to move on.

Not entirely sure what to do next, she found herself enrolled in law school. Two weeks into her second year, and just a handful of months into the pandemic, her ex-husband moved out.

To help pack up and move on, Hope’s dad made the trek out to North Carolina. While cleaning out a closet of her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s belongings, they ran across her old guitar from her days at West Point. That Guild guitar had been cracked and glued back together, been dragged along on several field training exercises . . . and it had been packed away for far, far too long. Her dad asked how long it had been since she played. Thinking back, Hope realized it had been years since she hummed a tune, much less strummed a six string. As any good dad would, Hope’s father told her it was probably time to try.

What started out as a way to survive such a bleak season became a rekindled old flame. The more Hope played and wrote and sang, the more she healed. And the more she healed the more she sang and wrote and played. In the summer of 2022 she released an EP that she produced in the bonus room over her garage.

Upon graduating law school, Hope moved to Jackson, Tennessee. There, she found a vibrant local music scene with talented musicians and a town full of music lovers. With a band in tow, Hope and the team hit the studio to record Hope’s first full-length album: the Matriarch. Released on October 28, 2023, it is now available on all streaming platforms.

The road back to music has been a bumpy one. But since cracking open that Guild’s case a few years ago, Hope’s guitar collection – and song collection – has grown. You can find her performing most weekends in Jackson, Memphis, Nashville, or back in central Illinois. And if you really want to get to know Hope, just meet her beloved labrador, Lucy.