Regardless of what people might think, January in Nashville
is cold. Damn cold, when you’re living in your car.
Ask Melissa Greener. On New Years Eve, she stood on a corner
downtown, with nothing but a guitar and an idea that Austin,
Texas might be where she needed to go. Strung out and shivering,
Melissa played her songs for passing tourists until she
had a hundred and twenty bucks, enough, apparently, to start
the career of one of the finest young singer/songwriters
to pick up a guitar. But that's just a small piece of the
story.
Born in Detroit, Melissa was supposed to go to college,
get a useful degree, and get in line with the rest of the
world. Fortunately for the rest of the world, she was unable
to deny the river of song that flowed in her veins. For
one so young, her story is long, and it's reflected in the
depth, insight, and maturity of her music.
Much to the dismay of her post-war parents, she begged
for a guitar for a year before she finally got one at the
tender age of nine. Melissa admits she was a lazy student,
although she soaked up every influence of childhood guitar
teacher Billy Brandt including his heros’; Stephen
Stills, Neil Young, and Gram Parsons.
In Junior High School Melissa discovered in the poetry
of Yeats, Dylan Thomas and Robert Service, an intensity
and passion similar to her own. Absorbing the rhythms, patterns,
structures and even melodies on the pages, her own compositions
emerged. By the time she was in High School, she was cultivating
her performance at talent nights and open mics. Her next
moment of clarity came when a band-mate asked Melissa to
teach her to play guitar like "this girl". "This
girl" was Shawn Colvin, whose influence was essential
to Melissa’s musical evolution.
After High School, wanderlust took Melissa to Tel Aviv,
and then love took her to Montreal, Canada. Once in Canada,
she completed a BFA in ceramics from The Nova Scotia College
of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There she was
offered the opportunity to teach in Jingdezhen, China, considered
to be the birthplace of porcelain. Isolated, the only westerner
in the village, Melissa began writing songs for what would
become her first record. During that time she was confronted
with the decision that writing and performing her songs
was the path she wanted to take. With her contract finished,
she returned to the US and apprenticed under studio potter
John Glick, after which time she left her ceramics career
behind, and sought out to focus her talent and energy on
music.
Over the next few years, Melissa worked at her music, but
took an unfortunate detour through love and addiction. However,
the greatest songs are often written when things are at
their worst, and another handful of songs was born that
would soon comprise the rest of Melissa’s first recording.
Melissa jumped to San Francisco, then to Clearwater, Florida
before realizing that she needed to take control of her
life. She left...alone, for Nashville.
Nashville turned out to be nothing but a series of letdowns,
knocking on the wrong doors, and feeling the cold reality
of rejection by the established music machine. But in that
darkness, Melissa heard a warm lilt from Texas calling,
so she took that spot on the corner on New Years Eve and
busked her way south to Austin.
It didn't take long for her to realize that she had made
the right decision. Melissa's talent was recognized right
away and she was accepted into the music community with
open arms. It wasn't long before she was introduced to producer
Darwin Smith, and her critically acclaimed first album,
"Fall from the Sky" became a reality. It was during
the making of that record that her music came to the attention
of John Jennings, who had produced Grammy winning records
for Mary Chapin Carpenter, and worked with Janis Ian, Iris
DeMent, and the Indigo Girls. Jennings was booked to helm
Melissa’s next recording project.
"Dwelling", produced by John Jennings was released
in April 2010. It is a grouping of 10 songs that explore
notions of ‘home’ and the intimacies between the
people who are closest in our lives. The love-hate and the
push-pull of familial as well as romantic unions, and the
place we take amid them are the meditations here. This demure
recording has much spirit. The songs are exquisitely supported
by Jennings’ gentle handling. Dwelling is receiving
rave reviews throughout the US and Europe.
After a residency in New York City, Melissa has returned
to Nashville where she no longer knocks on doors, but sneaks
in around back.
And so the story continues...?
