Melanie De Biasio

Spotify is a wonderful music service, I've found so many old songs or new artists that I never would have heard before.  I'll start on one artist I know and then click the "like so and so" link to see similar artists.  Sometimes I go deep, like K hold deep.  The other Friday was one of those nights.

I started with Phoebe Killdeer & the Short Straws, somehow made my way to a portuguese female singer named Dom La Nena and was really enticed by her song 'No Me Pais', and then I ended the night on Melanie De Biasio's 'Stomach is Burning'.  This was something I've been looking for a very long time; it's not made for this decade.  The first song I heard was 'Never Gonna Make It'.  I was taken to a jazz club in Chicago; dark, old rosewood stained with 30 years of cigarette smoke lines the bar and interior with high backed booths covered in a subdued red vinyl.  Lighting is strategically placed to always cast shadows and leave only the outline of the guests in the distance.  The windows have a tint to never allow sunlight in with large oak double doors to ensure it never sneaks in.  There are only a handful of drinks that you should order, or can.  Order the wrong beverage and you're politely asked to leave.  Everyone keeps to their self with an occasional appreciative nod and the music is the focus.  This is where I pictured her performing when I heard the first song.  

A tall bass, a piano, drums, a trumpet, and a sax accompany her lingering notes.  She has a more subdued Amy Winehouse like voice.  Not as brazen, more Nina Simone.  From the first note of 'My Man's Gone Now' it envelopes you, but it's very playful instead of bold and restricting.  She hits all the right melodies and it's only improved by the band playing along with her.  Cool blues with grey and lavender soak the listener into a methodic trance of content.  This is whiskey or wine music, Cabernet or Old Vine Zinfandel would provide the best accompaniment to it.  Her young voice with the perfection of arrangement makes this one of my favorite new finds.