Melissa Young
http://www.michronicleonline.com/articlelive/articles/2151/1/Melissa-Young/Page1.html
Deanna Dunham
By Deanna Dunham
Published on 12/12/2007
It’s a part of the territory to cascade through life trying to figure out your purpose and cause. For some, the answers are almost immediate; for others it takes a little bit longer. No matter what, we always seem to end up where we’re supposed to be.
Such is the case with Melissa Young.
Deanna Dunham
Melissa Young
It’s a part of the territory to cascade through life trying to figure out your purpose and cause. For some, the answers are almost immediate; for others it takes a little bit longer. No matter what, we always seem to end up where we’re supposed to be.
Such is the case with Melissa Young.
Under no specific genre classification other than her own as a “soul-a-listic” independent artist with a versatile octave range, once upon a time Melissa didn’t foresee herself as a highly recognized soloist.
“I can’t really say that I always knew my direction,” states the Greenville, SC native who grew up singing in the church choir.
“I knew what I loved but I always thought that I was going to be doing something else because getting a good education and getting a job with benefits is something that both of my parents stressed.”
Assuming she’d eventually become a chemical engineer, life ended up taking her down another path. With a double minor in acting and musical theater at Howard University but with no intentions of cultivating her artistic talent into a profession, it would in fact become the mainspring of her singing career.
Ending up in Miami for a performance with her school acting troupe, she met Bob Marley’s son Ky-mani Marley at a friend of a friend’s barbeque.
“We just clicked musically and started writing together,” she says. In ’99, just a few months after their meeting, she was called on to audition and sing background vocals during his debut album tour, “The Journey.”
Later, returning to school, for a couple of years to complete her master of fine arts studies in cinematography, leaving her both physically and financially strained, she instinctively relocated to the burgeoning musical loins of Atlanta where she has been rooted ever since.
There, unable to avoid it any longer, Melissa finally knew what she was supposed to be do.
“It took me some time to realize,” she states, “just stop denying that music is my passion.”
After years of paying her dues, building a strong avant-garde fan base with the help of her publicist, Fiona Bloom of The Bloom Effect, her performance credits include touring L.A. with Detroit’s Dwele this past October and twice opening up for Roy Ayers, including last month at the first annual Readers’ Choice SoulTrack Awards held in Detroit.
Earlier this year, she released her debut album, “Just up the Road,” on independent label SugaShack Music, her brainchild along with two trusted friends who shared the same musical vision – creating a music label that believed in the music.
“It’s a nice collection of all-female-owned-and-operated music, hence the name “Suga,” she states.
Her album, executively produced by R&B/Hip-Hop producer H. Storm of Beats Galore Productions – his most notable work appearing on Jermaine Dupri’s 2005 “Young, Fly & Flashy” album – “Just Up The Road’ is a barrage of original jazz and R&B percussions with two standout tracks including “Stay’”exclusively produced by Mississippi Shann, whose clients have included Yung Joc.
But with such a powerful, mesmerizing voice that has the ability to absorb you into her cadence lyrics, the music powered by the voice is just an added bonus.
With things well on their way, she’s also been putting her cinematography degree to good use. Despite a heavy ’08 tour schedule, she anticipates the release of “Just A Girl” video by late January, slated to appear on Yahoo!Music and on BETJ’s “Behind-the-Scenes”.
Reflecting upon everything up to this point, “Every single thing in my life that’s happened,” she states, “it’s like I’m on this dirt road and I was a little lost and couldn’t find what I was looking for.
“What I was looking for was not that far away. I just had to keep going,” she says, adding that the album personifys her journey at finding her voice as an artist.
With simple odes to love found, love lost, life choices, experiences and the joys and sadness of those changes, her prudent voice revealing an even more delicate side, she wraps it up by saying, “I’m just a girl, you know?”
“Just up the Road” is available online at cdbaby.com, Detroit’s Pearl Music store on Kercheval, and ITunes, and is anticipated for major distribution in late January.
For upcoming performance dates, listen to album tracks or more info, visit myspace.com/melissayoung1///melissayoung.com///sugashackmusic.com.
Contact Deanna Dunham at deannadunham@yahoo.com or www.deannadunham.com.
It’s a part of the territory to cascade through life trying to figure out your purpose and cause. For some, the answers are almost immediate; for others it takes a little bit longer. No matter what, we always seem to end up where we’re supposed to be. Such is the case with Melissa Young.
‘Just Up the Road’
Deanna Dunham
Melissa Young
It’s a part of the territory to cascade through life trying to figure out your purpose and cause. For some, the answers are almost immediate; for others it takes a little bit longer. No matter what, we always seem to end up where we’re supposed to be.
Such is the case with Melissa Young.
Under no specific genre classification other than her own as a “soul-a-listic” independent artist with a versatile octave range, once upon a time Melissa didn’t foresee herself as a highly recognized soloist.
“I can’t really say that I always knew my direction,” states the Greenville, SC native who grew up singing in the church choir.
“I knew what I loved but I always thought that I was going to be doing something else because getting a good education and getting a job with benefits is something that both of my parents stressed.”
Assuming she’d eventually become a chemical engineer, life ended up taking her down another path. With a double minor in acting and musical theater at Howard University but with no intentions of cultivating her artistic talent into a profession, it would in fact become the mainspring of her singing career.
Ending up in Miami for a performance with her school acting troupe, she met Bob Marley’s son Ky-mani Marley at a friend of a friend’s barbeque.
“We just clicked musically and started writing together,” she says. In ’99, just a few months after their meeting, she was called on to audition and sing background vocals during his debut album tour, “The Journey.”
Later, returning to school, for a couple of years to complete her master of fine arts studies in cinematography, leaving her both physically and financially strained, she instinctively relocated to the burgeoning musical loins of Atlanta where she has been rooted ever since.
There, unable to avoid it any longer, Melissa finally knew what she was supposed to be do.
“It took me some time to realize,” she states, “just stop denying that music is my passion.”
After years of paying her dues, building a strong avant-garde fan base with the help of her publicist, Fiona Bloom of The Bloom Effect, her performance credits include touring L.A. with Detroit’s Dwele this past October and twice opening up for Roy Ayers, including last month at the first annual Readers’ Choice SoulTrack Awards held in Detroit.
Earlier this year, she released her debut album, “Just up the Road,” on independent label SugaShack Music, her brainchild along with two trusted friends who shared the same musical vision – creating a music label that believed in the music.
“It’s a nice collection of all-female-owned-and-operated music, hence the name “Suga,” she states.
Her album, executively produced by R&B/Hip-Hop producer H. Storm of Beats Galore Productions – his most notable work appearing on Jermaine Dupri’s 2005 “Young, Fly & Flashy” album – “Just Up The Road’ is a barrage of original jazz and R&B percussions with two standout tracks including “Stay’”exclusively produced by Mississippi Shann, whose clients have included Yung Joc.
But with such a powerful, mesmerizing voice that has the ability to absorb you into her cadence lyrics, the music powered by the voice is just an added bonus.
With things well on their way, she’s also been putting her cinematography degree to good use. Despite a heavy ’08 tour schedule, she anticipates the release of “Just A Girl” video by late January, slated to appear on Yahoo!Music and on BETJ’s “Behind-the-Scenes”.
Reflecting upon everything up to this point, “Every single thing in my life that’s happened,” she states, “it’s like I’m on this dirt road and I was a little lost and couldn’t find what I was looking for.
“What I was looking for was not that far away. I just had to keep going,” she says, adding that the album personifys her journey at finding her voice as an artist.
With simple odes to love found, love lost, life choices, experiences and the joys and sadness of those changes, her prudent voice revealing an even more delicate side, she wraps it up by saying, “I’m just a girl, you know?”
“Just up the Road” is available online at cdbaby.com, Detroit’s Pearl Music store on Kercheval, and ITunes, and is anticipated for major distribution in late January.
For upcoming performance dates, listen to album tracks or more info, visit myspace.com/melissayoung1///melissayoung.com///sugashackmusic.com.
Contact Deanna Dunham at deannadunham@yahoo.com or www.deannadunham.com.