Gwen McKenna is a retired book editor and very occasional lyricist. In a mood one day, she wrote a rather smart-ass song about God called “Big Guy in the Sky” and reached out to a musician friend, Beth Melody, about a possible collaboration. Beth agreed, and so it began. Some kind of magic happened with that song and they ended up writing several more tunes together. (Beth’s also great on her own, by the way, as well as with her man LaBarre Banqueshot.) Gwen also wrote the lyrics for an original musical, “The Girl with the Ivory Ankle,” with music by Fred Crase and book by Jay Kettering, to premiere in 2024 at the Orphan Girl Children’s Theatre in Butte. She lives in Missoula with her husband and their two cats.