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Melissa Greener Music
In December 2018 I came off the road from a six-week run through 8 countries.
My soul was tired. But I had no plan or desire for that tour to be my last.
After fifteen years of professional pursuit, and a lifetime of personal passion – writing, performing, recording, and touring my music – I have been pulled off the path by some Great Mystery.
In the months leading up to that unintended swan song tour, I recorded an album, my fifth,
that remains unreleased.
The Fallow Year
Produced by Malcolm Burn, The Fallow Year is a deeply intimate collection of songs that I wrote during the apogee of a decade-long inner reckoning with mental health issues, addiction, and family & childhood trauma, alongside the pervasive, everyday mini-heartbreaks we trudge, and, if we're lucky, grow through.
Maybe one day these songs will see the light of day.
Until then, you can catch a glimpse of them here in the dark.
The Fallow Year - Intro
LISTEN
The Fallow Year
Track Previews
Waitin' For A Train
Hymn For The Night Sky
Born A Stranger
When I Leave This World
Blue
Same Big Sky
Long Road Down
Wishes
Fancy Free
Fall From The Sky
Produced by Darwin Smith
Released 2006
Bullets To Bite
On My Way Back Home
Crazy
Harder To Leave Texas
Dwelling
Produced by John Jennings,
Released in 2010.
SOLO-ELECTRIC
Live Concert, Essen Germany, 2016
Post-production by Vince Emmett
Bullets To Bite (Live)
Cold House (Live)
Streets Of Abilene (Live)
Angel From Montgomery (Live)
Transistor Corazón
Produced by Brad Jones
Released in 2012
The Mess Love Made
Transistor Corazón
If I Fell
Always
Artists don't get paid for their music anymore.
The best way to support the artists you listen to is by purchasing their music and merchandise
directly from them or their personal artist pages wherever possible.
©℗ All original songs, audio, and video recordings are owned by Gumptionsong Publications.
Cowrites and covers have been licensed with their respective publishers.
Illegal use of any music, while sometimes necessary, is uncool.
WATCH
Half A Heart
writer: David Rodriguez
Cold House
Live at Fox Run Studio
writer: MG
Streets of Abilene
Live at Fox Run Studio
writers: MG & Guy Clark
The Ballad of the Snow Leopard & the Tanqueray Cowboy
Live From Center Stage
writer: David Rodriguez
Ghost In The Van
writer: MG
Live From Center Stage
Bullets To Bite
Live Troubadour TX Showcase
writer: MG
Tack & Jibe
Live From Center Stage
writer: MG
Harvest Moon
Live From Center Stage
writer: Neil Young
LEARN
Recognize
• 1st Prize Winner: USA Songwriting Competition for Bullets To Bite
• Finalist: International Songwriting Competition for Same Big Sky
• Showcases at South by Southwest
and Folk Alliance International
Rooms & with-Whoms
I don't remember all of the details amid the swirl of stage lights, studios, sound-checks / sound guys, radio call signs, green rooms, merch girls, back alley load-ins, car rentals, and last-chance Texacos..
But here are a random few that come to mind:
VENUES
• 30-A Songwriter Festival
• Sligo Live Music Festival
• Kerrville Folk Festival
• Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
• 200 By The Sea Festival
• Church of the Lonely Ghost
• The Listening Room NYC
• Trinity House Theater
• The Bluebird Cafe
• Poor David's Pub
• Godfrey Daniels
• Swallow Hill
• Berlin Guitars
• Eddie's Attic
• Cactus Cafe
• Club Passim
• Caffe Lena
• The Ark • • •
BILLINGS
• Dar Williams
• Catie Curtis
• John Gorka
• Carrie Rodriguez
• Eric Taylor
• Abigail Washburn
• Greg Trooper
• Patty Larkin
• Stephen Fearing
• Eliza Gilkyson
• Ellis Paul
• Boomtown Rats • • •
Hearsay
"Beautifully symmetric work,
making writing songs look like painting.
Words for Greener are pigments,
dripping with beauty and demure conviction."
– Alt Country Forum
"A glorious voice..
an accomplished guitarist..
and an arresting songwriter.
Highly literate, vivid imagery.. taking the typical
beyond familiar territory."
– Acoustic Guitar Magazine
"Greener succeeds in painting
superb portraits of the human condition.
Be awake and alert, and grasp the Technicolor grandeur contained within Dwelling."
– Maverick Music Magazine
"That gorgeous voice,
her stunning, literate verse,
her subtle ability to interpret,
her sensational flat-picking...
She really is the total package!"
– 3rd Coast Music Magazine
"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."
– Roger Allen, KGSR Austin
Friends & Allies
I first met Guy Clark when Buddy Mondlock brought me over to his house one afternoon. The three of us sat around Guy's workbench downstairs chatting and trading songs. At a pause in the conversation, I unabashedly fangirled at Guy, gushing over my favorite of his songs, She Aint Goin' Nowhere.
He took a slow drag from the joint, passed it my way, and began to play the song right to me. I think I cried from the first line through the whole damn thing.
I was very fortunate to have been friends with Guy for the last decade of his life. I'd go over to his house every couple weeks or so, unless one or the other of us were out of town. Working with up-and-comer songwriters energized Guy, and I was lucky to be a part of that. Toward the end, I'd help out with errands, and cook him food... he particularly loved my beef-barley soup. If ever there was a quintessential Stoic-smartypants-cowboy, it was Guy. I miss him all the time.
I figured if my song was chosen I'd bail on the crappy coffeehouse gig I was booked to play in the Quad Cities the next night. I mean, how often do you get a chance to meet and talk shop with, much less have your song critiqued by, Rosanne-freaking-Cash?
Rosanne Cash was leading a small songwriting workshop in Omaha that I was completely unaware of until I finished sound-check for my gig in town the night before at Mick's Music Bar. I was told participants could submit a song that might be selected as a topic in the workshop. I immediately went online, found the organizer's info, and emailed an MP3 of my song On My Way Back Home.
Lo and behold, my song was selected.
After the workshop, Rose hopped into the shotgun seat of my '88 Vanagon and we bee-lined for the winebar. We hung out
all evening chatting, drinking absurdly good wine, and eating far beyond my Omaha per diem. Thankfully, Rose took the check.
We stayed in touch after that, and she's been very kind to make time for a visit when I've toured through NYC.
Bruce Cockburn was in town recording another Colin Linden-produced album. Knowing that Bruce and I shared a dear mutual friend, and aware of my fancy guitar collection, Colin invited me over to his house for a meeting. Bruce is one of the very loveliest individuals around. He scores at the top of the kindness-to-talent ratio scale. Even for a Canadian!
Every time we touch base he's just as warm, present, interesting, and interested as can be. It's like all of his cells' antennae are constantly dilated, surveying the atmosphere at attention. A truly high vibe dude.
Bruce was super generous to sit down with me to record an interview for a podcast I had begun to develop. Maybe one day that conversation will make its way out into the world.
© Melissa Greener Music 2025
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