Southern My Way

It's no secret that I love to cook. My cookbooks & 3 ring binders (stuffed full of beloved recipes) are prized possessions. Whole Foods is my favorite place to shop...seriously. So, when I saw Gena Knox's newest cookbook, "Southern My Way" on my last grocery run, I had to have it! Just as soon as I picked it up, I noticed the price, $35! As I flipped through all the beautiful pages, I convinced myself to look online & see if it was any cheaper. 


Much to my delight, I came home to a little surprise last weekend...

Almost Famous

Check out the article, "Almost Famous," in Julep Magazine's summer issue & watch the behind-the-scenes video from the music video shoot! 

www.juleponline.com

Hello, Darlin'

Hello, Darlin'...

It's been an incredible couple weeks! We spent Memorial Day weekend shooting my music video & I'm still in a dream state! It was an unbelievable experience & I can't wait to share the video with you! It'll be ready by the end of the month, but in the meantime, you can check out exclusive behind-the-scenes content in Julep Magazine (don't worry, I'll share the link when it's out)!

Oh, and if you don't already subscribe to Julep, you'll want to! The first 500 readers get a free download of my single, "Money, Money, Money."

My new website will be launching soon as well as my Crazy Dream EP! Did you know July is National Ice Cream Month (thank you President Regan!)? Lot's of fun things in store to celebrate the album release...


xoxoxo,


Melissa 

Julep Magazine: A Cover Story

I'm beyond overjoyed to announce that I'm Julep Magazines "covergirl" for the summer issue! Get the inside scoop here - http://juleponline.com/behind-the-scenes-summer-issue-cover-shoot.aspx - and be sure to subscribe! 

Melissa poses for photographer, Glen Rose, at the Julep Magazine cover shoot. Photo credit: Rebecca Wilson

   

Bon Appétit

Right now (as in 8:01 pm on Saturday night) I'm drinking an Argentinean Malbec in a mason jar, I've got an Asparagus Ricotta Pizza in the oven & my feet are soaking in an aromatic concoction of bath salts. I've spent the last 2 days cooking & I'm pretty sure I'll need the foot massage fairy to visit me in the night or I'll never be able to get out of bed tomorrow. Why does this matter? It doesn't. Other than the fact that I wanted to introduce a new feature on my blog & figured I could be more clever than just simply announcing a new feature on my blog. So, there's going to be a new feature on my blog about cooking.


I love to cook. My Nanna was an incredible chef & she lived across the street. My Momma has made some of the most memorable meals in my life... like decadent browned butter mashed potatoes from a Thanksgiving dinner gone awry. Yep, they were a complete mistake but absolutely delicious. I really got into cooking my last year of college. It became a full-on obsession when I moved to Nashville. I spent all of my money (literally) on cookbooks & elaborate ingredients; testing out recipes on my new friends & discovering cuisines from around the world. Yes, I'm self-taught. Like anything, cooking just takes practice. 


To supplement the little money I made in the music industry, I started my own in-home "chef" business for families in Nashville. Meals In Heels - that's right. I made dinner for some great people. Most recently I've been cooking at an incredible organic restaurant outside of the city. Pretty much everything is sourced locally & you can find me there on a Friday or Saturday making ice cream, or roasting turkeys or concocting sheep cheese & strawberry balsamic salads - because we just got fresh sheep cheese & strawberries from the farm.  


Like music, food is a creative outlet for me. I love coming up with new things to eat. I rarely ever make the same meal twice. Sure, I've got my favorite tried & true recipes but I love to try new things. So, long story short, my new blog feature will be all about food. Great recipes, tips, or just me gushing on an incredible meal I had. If you don't cook, you can. As Julia would say, "Bon Appétit!"

Get the Single 4/15

My first single, "Money, Money, Money" will hit iTunes & Amazon mp3 on payday - Friday 4/15! I'm so excited to share my new music with you! 

3 More Days!

For the past month, I've been enlisting the help of fans, friends & family through Kickstarter to shoot my 1st music video. The month has flown by & we've got 3 more days to reach the goal of $6,500! We're close, but not quite there yet... 


I'm abundantly blessed by the outpouring of support I've received. I'm humbled. I'm grateful. I'm blown away.


If you can rub a few pennies together (100 to be exact), I'd LOVE your support. Every single dollar makes a HUGE difference. I'm a believer in "death by a thousand cuts" - $1, $5, $15 increments really add up! I'd also LOVE to send you digital downloads of my new music just for pledging. Check out the great "backer rewards" below and please Pledge Here by March 31st! 

PLEDGE $5 OR MORE

Pre-released digital download of the single, "Money, Money, Money" just for pledging!

 2 BACKERS

PLEDGE $15 OR MORE

Digital download of Melissa's EP, Crazy Dream, once it's released + pre-released digital download of the single, "Money, Money, Money!"

 7 BACKERS

PLEDGE $25 OR MORE

Pre-released digital download of Melissa's EP, Crazy Dream!

 8 BACKERS

PLEDGE $50 OR MORE

Pre-released digital download of Melissa's EP, Crazy Dream + 3 bonus tracks (not available to the public)!

 8 BACKERS

PLEDGE $75 OR MORE

Unlock a special section of Melissa's website & watch the music video before it's released + get access to behind-the-scenes clips from the making of the EP & the music video! You'll also get the pre-released digital download of Melissa's EP, Crazy Dream + 3 bonus tracks (not available to the public)!

 0 BACKERS

PLEDGE $100 OR MORE

Personalized & autographed CD + DVD of the music video & behind-the-scenes footage! You can unlock a special section of Melissa's website & watch the music video before it's released + get access to behind-the-scenes clips from the making of the EP & the music video! You'll also get the pre-released digital download of Melissa's EP, Crazy Dream + 3 bonus tracks (not available to the public)!

 6 BACKERS

PLEDGE $250 OR MORE

LIMITED REWARD     7 of 10 remaining

You & a guest are invited to an exclusive VIP party at a gorgeous estate outside of Nashville!* The night will be filled with great food & drinks, an acoustic concert by Melissa & the premiere of the music video! You can unlock a special section of Melissa's website & watch the music video before it's released (after the premiere party) + get access to behind-the-scenes clips from the making of the EP & the music video! You'll receive a personalized & autographed CD + DVD of the music video & the pre-released digital download of Melissa's EP, Crazy Dream + 3 bonus tracks (not available to the public)! *Travel and/or transportation is not included.

 3 BACKERS

PLEDGE $500 OR MORE

LIMITED REWARD     1 of 5 remaining

Star in the music video!* We'll create a character just for you! Make your film debut + you'll get a customized "deleted scenes" segment featuring you & Melissa. Hey, it's not everyday you get to be in a music video! You & a guest are also invited to an exclusive VIP party at a gorgeous estate outside of Nashville!* The night will be filled with great food & drinks, an acoustic concert by Melissa & the premiere of the music video! You can unlock a special section of Melissa's website & watch the music video before it's released (after the premiere party) + get access to behind-the-scenes clips from the making of the EP & the music video! You'll receive a personalized & autographed CD + DVD of the music video & the pre-released digital download of Melissa's EP, Crazy Dream with 3 bonus tracks (not available to the public)! *Travel and/or transportation is not included.

 4 BACKERS

    
Pretty Please & Thank You... with a cherry on top :)

Money, Money, Money: The Music Video for Cube Dwellers

You can learn more about my music video at Kickstarter. I hope you'll consider supporting this project! In exchange for donations, the backer rewards are cool - pre-released digital download of my EP, passes to a VIP premiere party, you can even star in the video! Every dollar helps! 


I can't wait to share my new music with each of you!

Beautiful Girl

It’s always been interesting to me how situations or topics have a way of weaving themselves through life. Call it serendipity or even fate but I believe there is reason why these reoccurring themes evolve into a thread that binds our story together. A good friend, songwriter and teacher, Kris Bergsnes, gave me an unforgettable analogy once. He was comparing the notion of “practice makes perfect” to art of crafting a song. He said that life happens and as songwriters, we write about it – but sometimes in the moment of the emotion, no matter how passionate we feel about the topic, the song doesn’t manifest into the masterpiece we’d envisioned. So, we move on and keep writing. The idea becomes buried in the recesses of our mind. Weeks, months, even years can go by and eventually, if its significant, the idea and the emotion surrounding it surfaces. Practice makes perfect because when the time is right, when our perspective has shifted just enough, we take that idea or the line or the concept and turn into something greater.

A few months ago, my sister called to tell me that a close family friend had been hospitalized. We headed to Vanderbilt that evening and much to our surprise learned that our friend hadn’t eaten for almost 3 weeks. She’d been anorexic for most of her teenage years and we never knew it. She told us how angry she was that her life had been displaced because of her eating disorder – how it had controlled her and ruined her “best years.” She’d bounced from hospital to treatment facility to private school to home school and just when she thought life was finally “normal” again, she relapsed. She laid in that hospital bed, hooked to a feeding tube, unable to change her situation.

My heart broke. I climbed into her story – replaying the things we’d talked about, trying to figure out why or how this could happen to such a sweet, kind-hearted and beautiful girl. I think most women can relate to the pressures we internalize about our bodies, image, and self-esteem. In one way or another, we never quite feel pretty enough or thin enough or perfect enough to just accept the way we’ve been created and be happy.

Being skinny had always been an inconvenience for me – an open wound that became easily irritated by a snide remark or someone trying to give me a compliment in a backward kind of way. I didn’t weigh 100 lbs until I was a senior in high school and had been accused of being anorexic or bulimic since the 1^st grade. In Jr. High, my mom would pick me up for lunch so I didn’t have to deal with the taunting. She’d take me to Dairy Queen and I’d order malted milkshakes in a futile attempt to bulk-up. It didn’t work. To add insult to injury, I was so small and my legs were so long that the only two options for pants were Wranglers (the kind without pockets) and the homemade kind.

It’s all quite comical in retrospect but I spent too much of my adolescence crying and wishing I could gain weight or be beautiful like the other girls. I didn’t comprehend the devastating affects of an actual eating disorder until much later in life. As bad as I thought having a high metabolism was, I was far too naïve to understand what the pressure to be thin had caused women around the world (and some of the dearest women in my life) to do to their bodies.

When I moved to Nashville, the church I was attending had a special section of pews for a group of girls from Mercy Ministries. I took an interest in the non-profit and read the founders memoir, Echoes of Mercy. The book detailed the lives of several young women who’d endured years of sexual abuse or drug addiction or an eating disorder and often times, all the above. However, each of the women overcame their darkest realities. Through faith, they came to believe there was a purpose for their lives and that they were beautiful. I was deeply moved by their stories – for the first time, I could grasp the emotional complexity and severity of an eating disorder. It broke my heart. So, I wrote about it. The song never materialized but the sentiment never left me.

My friend was transferred from Vanderbilt to a treatment facility specializing in eating disorders. A few days before she left, I was writing with JP Williams and told him her story. My perspective had shifted just enough to take the idea – a thread that had been woven through my life – and with JP’s help, turn it into something greater. We wrote this for Elise and for all of the beautiful girls in the world. 

New Bio (Minus the Brag)

My entire life I’ve hated to talk about myself – you know, the shameless promotion kind of conversations – “I do this and I’ve done that and you might recognize me from…” gag. It’s safe to admit that I’ve pretty much despised every bio I’ve ever had because of the general concept – pack as much self-exploiting content that screams ME, ME, ME, into the fewest amount of paragraphs possible. This isn’t that kind of story.


I like chronology & organized thoughts, so I put together a Get To Know Me in 5 Bullet Points or Less introduction (adapted from a previous feature on this blog):

1. My name is Melissa. Hi. I’m an artist (the musical kind), songwriter, cowgirl hippie, Martha Stewart wanna be, Wyoming native (hopefully the cowgirl hippie part makes sense now), self-proclaimed gourmet chef (only when I follow the recipe), gardener, fashionista, bookworm & I find most children, dogs and costume parties irresistible.
2. I live in Nashville. I create music I love – it’s my job.
3. My family is amazing & they introduced me to practically every type of music (expect for the “inappropriate” kinds) growing up. More on that later. Yes, I’m foreshadowing.
4. I spent my summers as a teenager traveling around the western fair & rodeo circuit performing. I had the privilege of opening for several incredible artists & bands that I admire. They shaped me, stretched me & inspired me to do what I do. Even more, I love genuine, honest, hardworking people & if you’re not sure they still exist, go to a county fair. They’re there.
5. I’ve recently recorded an EP. It’s been over 3 years in the making. I’ve had the awesome privilege of working with Chad Carlson (home boy’s got skillz) & we’ve created something REALLY exciting & different & completely me!

At a young age, I knew I wanted to be a singer & live in Nashville when I grew up. Coming from Wyoming, the thought of sharing a zip code with Garth Brooks & signing my first record deal while wearing a diamond studded belt-buckle the size of a license plate was really exciting. Fast-forward a decade; I’m in Nashville and interning for a big-time producers publishing company. But all that glitters is not gold. I was living out Paula Coles' song, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone.” It was complete hypocrisy. I was 99% more “country” than anyone getting a record deal but because my voice sounds more like melted butter than trailer tin, I kept hearing, “you’re stuff is really pop” or “if you’re from Wyoming, why don’t have an accent?” News flash: Only people from the South have Southern accents. The rest of em' are fakin' it. What a concept, y'all.


As confused and frustrated that the “not country enough” notion made me, it also pushed me out of my comfort zone. Just because I’d been playing and writing country music for the last 7 years didn’t necessarily mean it was what defined me. I grew up singing in church which parlayed into voice lessons and jazz music and national competitions and rodeo gigs. The more I thought about it, just because I was from the ol’ west didn’t mean I was destined to sound like it. I had such a rich upbringing of incredible music – everything from the Glenn Miller Orchestra to Nat King Cole, ZZ Top to Chris LeDoux, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Queen and the list goes on.


I hated the notion of being locked up in a musical box. It’s been liberating to not care if I fit into the “radio” mold, sound like what’s popular right now, or if my lyrics are too sophisticated for the audience. In my post-dream haze, Nashville has blossomed into an incredible, stylistically open & creative incubator. I’d never of met the co-writers, musicians and friends that have helped shaped my music anywhere else. So, I’ll let you decide what stylistic box to put me in. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing, playing out & doing my thing.