Melissa Gibson Recent News

Happy Holidays to everyone! Life has thrown a few curve balls my way but I am happy to report I am writing once again for a new acoustic album. We are also booking a few gigs in the New England area so stay tuned for those! As always, thanks for your patience!

I am relieved to say that I am finally beginning to feel a bit like a New Englander again and have begun working on several projects which will hopefully take my career in new and exciting directions. I certainly hope things in your corner are well.

February 2007

With 10 years of Nashville under my belt, I have felt the need to return to my roots and so have begun the process of moving back to New England. I couldn't be more excited about my move as I have felt the pull for quite a while but wanted to finish my most recent album before making any major decisions. Of course, I will miss many facets of Nashville immensely but plan to return to record often.

As hectic as moves usually are, I will be taking a break for a spell but plan on jumping back into the game once I have relocated and settled in a bit.

Your patience and continued support means the world and I thank you.

Melissa

August 2006

We've just learned of a review in
Maverick Country Music Magazine

We've posted it below: (screen capture here)

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New Englander Melissa Gibson has been in Nashville for ten years and in that time has built a sizeable following for her optimistic style of country-folk music.

IN YOUR CORNER (Java Joe's Records 80767000629)
(3 stars out of 4) her fourth self-released album is a seamless collection of self-written songs that insinuate the mind with just one listen. With repeated playing tracks like Over Your Shoulder, with the great fiddle work by Jim Unger, the folk-styled Trembling Arms, with Jeff Taylor's accordion adding great colour to the song and the captivating The Water and the Earth with the unusual trade-off between fiddle and organ working perfectly in unison with Melissa's deep but effective lead vocal.

This is a record that should appeal for those who enjoy the music of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash or Kim Richey without in any way cloning any of those three.
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Mid-July 2006

Hello Everyone. The new album "In Your Corner" is now available for purchase online at CdBaby or at Amazon.com.

We just received a review from Belgium. Here it is:

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"At the end of last year, Melissa Gibson came to the table with a cover album entitled “Under Their Influence” which consisted of her interpretations of some of her favorite songwriters; material from the likes of John Hiatt, John Denver, Carly Simon and Carole King. This resulted in an interesting and impressive CD. My curiosity was extremely piqued as to how her own material would compare and no more than six months later, she has released “In Your Corner” all songs that she has composed herself. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Her mix of country, pop, folk and pure songwriting made for a delicious up-tempo, full flavored album. Her warm, rich voice lends itself to her beautiful melodies. While one can hear the songwriters and musicians who have influenced her creep into her songs, there is never a faint feeling that she is trying to be Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Marc Cohn, James Taylor, or Carly Simon etc... While they are never far away, Melissa’s style is all her own.

Recommended songs: The fine songwriter-pop of “Untrouble Your Mind”, the Irish-tinted folk-pop of “Rolling Away”, the beautiful country-pop of “My Own,” “Raining In L.A.,” and “On The Rise” (in which the accordion of Jeff Taylor, the fiddle of Jim Unger and the acoustic guitar of Vaughn Lofstead are by themselves enough to listen to) and finally, “What They Meant” in which folk and pop enter into the perfect marriage. Just as on her previous CDs the vision of this project is delightfully brought to completion by guitarist and producer Vaughn Lofstead." (BV)
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MazzMusikaS Free-zine
Formerly RootsTown Music
Marc Nolis – Editor/Owner
Van Erstenstraat 24
B-2100 Deurne-Antwerp
Belgium

I'll keep you posted as more news comes available

July 2006

Hello Everyone. The new album "In Your Corner" has just been released and is available for purchase online at CdBaby or at Amazon.com. Thankfully, so far, it has been well received by both print and radio. Please cross your fingers that the good news continues.

My writing took a turn somewhere between the last album and this one. It is strange to feel yourself changing without much control over it. While, I didn't consciously decide to go in any particular direction, I think overall, "In Your Corner" is a little more hopeful than some of the work I have previously released. I hope you will like it regardless of the differences that you may hear. I'm particularly proud of all the musicians who were kind enough to lend their incredible talents to the album. They went above and beyond in every way possible.

Thanks to all who have commented and/or emailed with encouraging words. Please know how much we appreciate that!

April 2006

Hello Everyone. I hope things in your corner are going smoothly. Incidentally, the new album is entitled "In Your Corner" and will hit shelves sometime late in the spring. Meanwhile, we are working on booking dates to promote it. Please check the gig link as it will change as we confirm more dates. Hopefully, I will be able to see some of you on the road as you can't imagine how great it feels to see friendly faces in the audience.

I've just begun a blog on myspace of random thoughts that strike me while I muddle through. If you'd like to check that out it is located here.

We've also worked on redesigning the website a bit. Many things needed to be recoded, so please let us know if you stumble onto a broken link and we'll fix it ASAP.

I just wanted to check in and let you know how things are shaping up.

take care,
all my thanks,
Melissa

February 2006

Thanks goes to everyone who supported and purchased the cover album, "Under Their Influence," which we just completed in December 2005. I was thrilled that so many of you had such positive things to say about it since it was a little scary to try to give justice to songs that have been done so well already by their writers. So much thanks goes out to all of you for that.

It received a rave review in Belgium which was such a gift as it is always remarkable when things go global. Thanks to Marc Nolis for taking a chance on it. He remarked in the review that when he saw the track list, his first impression was one of skepticism, thinking that I shouldn't have tried to cover such well known material. After hearing it, though, he had to admit, that I had won him over and he was impressed with the risks taken. Whew!

Meanwhile, Vaughn and I have been hard at work on my next album of all original material that is due to release in the spring 2006. While we have run into a few setbacks, we are very excited about how it is coming together and hoping all will enjoy it as well.

We finally have a page up on MySpace.com. Drop by if you would like. I recently read that Myspace.com is receiving two and a half times the number of web traffic that Google receives! Now THAT is what I call surfing the web!

Our song "Just Breathe" off our debut album, Lighthouse Point, just went number one on PittRadio and we couldn't be more thrilled about that. It is always amazing to hear that an older song has had some staying power of sorts. We certainly don't take that for granted.

Wishing everyone warm, bright weather as we head into spring. take care, all my thanks,

Melissa

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December 2005
Hello All

I hope this season finds you well, that you enjoyed a terrific thanksgiving and are looking forward to the Christmas season. I thought I would add to my own holiday craze by trying to get the new cover album out by Dec. 15th. My Dad has always accused me of biting off more than I can chew and apparently, this is no exception. Of course, hectic or not, making an album is extremely enjoyable especially this time as we focused on some of my very favorite songs by treasured writers.

Working with the band is always the best part of heading into the studio. It's amazing to have so many creatively gifted people in one spot. After some agonizing decision making, the album has finally come together. It is entitled "Under Their Influence" as collectively, these writers have influenced and shaped me more than most others. While obviously, I couldn't included a song from every songwriter whom I hold in high regard, I've tried to make sure the heaviest hitters are well represented. For more information on the new album, sound clips and lyrics please click this link.

I look forward to hearing your comments about it. I realize it's often strange to hear a new voice to an old favorite but I operate under the pretense that great songs should be sung by as many people as possible. I hope you will enjoy my version of them.

The album will be available on DECEMBER 15th at Amazon.com and on CD BABY.com.

As always, thanks for everything

Melissa

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November 2005

Hello Everyone,

I hope the fall season is treating you well. We have finally decided on the track list for the cover album (although, we still have not finalized the order.) The songs are as follows:

I Envy the Wind (Lucinda Williams)
Anticipation (Carly Simon)
Dig Down Deep (Marc Cohn)
Where You Lead (Carole King / Toni Stern)
Have A Little Faith In Me (John Hiatt)
When You Say Nothing At All (Don Schlitz / Paul Overstreet)
What Are You Waiting For (Blue Miller/ Beth Miekos)
Waiting For My Angel To Show (Don Schlitz)
It’s Only Love (Mary Chapin Carpenter / Randy Scruggs)
Fields Of Gray (Bruce Hornsby)
Leaving On A Jet Plane (John Denver)
You Got It (Roy Orbison / Tom Petty / Jeffrey Lynne)
Unglued (Robert Mair / Joel Wachbrit)

It was very difficult to choose which songs to include, but the final list fit together well and were all written by people whom I hold in the highest regard. It was quite a challenge to try to add something slightly different to each, while respecting the original recording that was already so incredible. The idea of this album at its conception was to cover very well known songs, but a few months into it, I realized that it also needed a few of the songs that I fell in love with that, for whatever reason, weren't as popular. Each song has helped me at one point or another in my life and I view this album as sort of a "thank you" to the songs themselves.

In other news, I have joined forces with Dawn at The Press House. She will be helping me with publicity and doing a national campaign for my releases. I am very excited to be working with her. Thanks goes to Dawn.

Our song "Sleep Well Tonight" has been listed as a finalist in the Children's category of this year's Mid-Atlantic Song Contest. We were thrilled and honored to get that news from the Songwriters Association of Washington. Thanks goes to them for all of their hard work.

Okay, that's it from me for now
As usual, thanks so much for your support, you time and patience.
take care everyone,
Melissa

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September 2005

Hello Folks,

I hope things are going smoothly for all of you. I apologize that I haven't updated this section in a while, but rest assure, Vaughn and I are in full swing production for my upcoming two new albums. One of which will be a collection of my latest songs and one of which will be a collection of songs written by songwriters whom I have always held in high regard. It is always such an honor to be able to put together such a project but even more so because of the incredibly talented players who generously agreed to help. Studio time with them is fantastic and as usual, I am awed and humbled by what each is able to bring to the song. We have the basic tracks finished for my album and are working on laying the tracks for the other. I am hoping to have the cover album released by the end of the year but we'll see what happens in the next couple of months.

Thanks for your support and patience,

Melissa

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February 2005

Hello Everyone...

I hope the New Year has been good to you thus far. Vaughn and I are working on putting together some live tracks so hopefully we can get those uploaded in the near future on the website.

Thanks to all who have commented on the newer songs. They are still available for download by clicking here but please keep in mind, they are only in demo form.

Tanya and I continue to work on booking some dates for the late spring / summer tour. If you have a favorite venue, we'd love to hear about it. Hopefully, we will be visiting with many of you soon.

If you've got a comment, we are always interested and you may email us here

I hope things are well in your corner,
Take care and thanks to all of you,
Melissa