Melissa Greener: Press

“It Gets Harder To Leave Texas Every Time is Melissa’s song now. I feel like John Prine listening to Bonnie Raitt sing Angel From Montgomery.”

"Be awake and alert, expend the time, and you’ll grasp the Technicolor grandeur contained within Greener’s DWELLING.

Five years on from the release of FALL FROM THE SKY, Greener returns with her John Jennings produced sophomore effort. Thereon Melissa (acoustic guitar, vocals) is supported by the compact trio of Jennings (guitars, bouzouki jr, piano, keyboards, basses, drums, vocal harmonies), Inner Rhythm’s leader Robert Jospe (drums, percussion), and the redoubtable Oliver Steck (accordion, trumpet). Via tightly edited lyrics that occasionally appear to be a disjointed series of flash cards, Greener succeeds in painting superb portraits of the human condition – hers and ours. The latter being no mean feat, I would advise listeners to approach this recording with an open mind and very alert ears.

Greener’s Bullets to Bite won First Prize in the folk category of the 2009 USA Songwriting Competition, and opens the album. In the chorus Melissa examines her experiences with the human condition – ‘I’m awakening, forsakening, the flaming pieces left behind me. It’s just growing pains, this regret and shame. But looking back it just reminds me; I’ve got bullets to bite.’ She subsequently alludes to: ‘Getting stronger stripping armor. Fitting in my skin’ and, the life lesson nearing completion, concludes with the hopeful: ‘Stay with me babe. Teach me to make gold from dust.’ An exploration of the meaning of ‘home’ the narrator in the ensuing On My Way Back Home relates her life story, so far.

The ten song DWELLING features three astutely selected covers, and the first, David Rodriguez’s Ballad of the Snow Leopard & the Tanqueray Cowboy was a classic when he brought it to the public domain two decades ago on his MAN AGAINST BEAST (cassette) album. The years haven’t altered my assertion, and here Melissa delivers a beautifully wistful rendition. Yet to be recorded by it writer, and probably penned by Jonathan Byrd while fling home from the Lone Star state to North Carolina, It Gets Harder to Leave Texas Every Time, no holds barred, one of the diamonds in this collection. In its own way, it’s another song about that dwelling place – ‘home’. Enough said.

Perched between the forgoing covers is Greener’s Paris, a sensual ode to love and art. Steck’s low-key accordion support simply adds the finishing touch to the latter. With mention of Serotonin, the lyrical wild card in this particular pack is undoubtedly Crazy. If you possess a modicum of sailing knowledge relative to maneuvering to port (left) and starboard (right), then the full glory and beauty of Tack & Jibe will become apparent. Melissa closes the album with a laid back rendering of Neil Young’s soothing Harvest Moon.

Absent from the three-way, fold out card liner, the lyrics to Greener’s songs can be downloaded via the music button at http://www.melissagreener.com.

I’m certain that further explorations of DWELLING will reveal even more delights and insights."

"Chicago House has been closed for fourteen years now, but former co-owner Peg Miller is on record as saying that, in all that time, Greener “is the first person to make me wish that I still had a venue.” This is heady stuff coming from someone who nurtured so many of the now well known singer-songwriters who started out playing Jimmy LaFave and Betty Elders’ Open Mikes, and whose opinions on this subject carry considerable weight, but Greener’s second album will make you understand Miller’s enthusiasm. There’s so much to admire on it that it’s hard to know where to begin. Your average music lover would probably start off with that gorgeous, intimate and utterly distinctive voice; another songwriter with the stunning, literate and evocative lyrics; another singer with her subtle ability to interpret David Rodriguez’s The Ballad Of The Snow Leopard And The Tanqueray Cowboy, Jonathan Byrd’s It Gets Harder To Leave Texas Every Time and Neil Young’s Harvest Moon; another guitar player with her sensational flat picking; another recording artist with the masterful production by John Jennings, best known for his work on eleven Mary Chapin Carpenter albums. Given all this, Greener should, by rights, be as homely as a mud fence and/or have zero stage presence, but no, she got dealt high cards in both those departments too. As Miller says, she really is the total package."

"The first thing that struck me about this album is the presence of John Jennings. This can only mean one thing: this lady has something valuable to give. The first impressions are immediately positive. Even more appealing is the act of simply listening to this album. My feelings become realized. Compositionally there are a number of wonderful tunes, ten in fact. Seven of them Melissa wrote, with three covers from veterans Jonathan Byrd, David Rodriguez and Neil Young. It is beautifully symmetric work, that makes writing songs look like painting. Words for her are pigments. This demure album contains much beauty, which she delivers with vicarious emotion and conviction. It is a spirited album with basic instrumentation and sparse as it may seem, knows how to give the just ambience. There are great names in music and smaller names. However, this name will surely become a bit greater. A very beautiful cd emerging in spring of 2010"

(edited version, translated from Dutch by Rogier de la Isla)

Fall From The Sky - 2005 release

"Melissa Greener is one of those rare artists who appear on the scene with all their talents maturely developed. Blessed with a glorious, outsized, and utterly distinctive voice, Greener is also an accomplished guitarist whose powerful acoustic flat-picking is rooted in blues and folk. An arresting songwriter, she uses highly literate, vivid imagery to take typical concerns like love and identity beyond familiar territory. The music is strikingly original and impressively varied, featuring strong, catchy melodies in strange and brooding voicings. This may be her debut CD, but Melissa Greener is already a pro."

"After seeing Melissa Greener I've been playing Fall From The Sky repeatedly. I have also just picked up Joni Mitchell's first album, Songs To A Seagull. I've got to tell you, I like Melissa's debut better. I am not saying Melissa Greener is better than Joni Mitchell, I am saying check her out."

"I can't even explain what it felt like to listen to her. Her song had me in tears... her way of putting words together... her voice... all of it... it took me back in time. It reminded me of how I felt the first time I heard Joni Mitchell perform. I knew, listening to Melissa, that I was standing in the presence of greatness."

"Melissa has the package. Lovely melodies, a beautiful voice and a stunning stage presence. But, what tops the cake are her excellent guitar skills. She creates memorable arrangements that definitely rise above the crowd."

“The soul of a poet, the rhythm of a rocker! Melissa Greener - Heiress to modern folk-rock territory blazed by Ani, Dar and Lucy, Enveloping the listener with a warm confident voice and lyrical intrigue."

" In all the years Chicago House has been closed, Melissa Greener is the first person to make me wish that I still had a venue - so that I could have a personal hand in the success that she will, no doubt, soon enjoy.

"Melissa has the distinction of being the only artist I’ve ever heard, who took a couple of listens before I even noticed her sweet voice and fine lyrics! I had NEVER before been so taken with someone's guitar picking style and technique that I didn't pay any attention to their songs!!! I watched as every picker in the room - both male and female - snapped to attention with admiration when she played. Truly a ‘musician's musician’, she effortlessly cast off licks others would kill to be able to finger their way through... and, at such a young age! It was on the second listen that I really ‘fell’ for her as I discovered the outstanding singer-songwriter that she is.

“Possessing an outstanding stage presence, a true beauty (both inside and out), she is a natural, and a consummate professional when gracing the stage. Melissa Greener is the total package."

"I love Melissa Greener. She writes and sings with loads of emotion, authority and skill. There are a great many things to recommend her Cd, but "Long Road Down" alone is worth the price of admission. She is really something."