Melissa Ferrick

Last updated

Melissa Ferrick
Melissaferrick.jpg
Melissa Ferrick performing on September 10, 2008
Background information
Born (1970-09-21) September 21, 1970 (age 53)
Origin Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States
GenresFolk-Rock
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)Guitar, vocals
Years active1991–present
Labels Atlantic Records
What Are Records?
Right On Records
MPress Records
Website www.melissaferrick.com

Melissa Ferrick (born September 21, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter. She is a music professor at Northeastern University and at Berklee College of Music.

Contents

Early life

Ferrick was raised in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Her father John was a public school teacher who managed several free-jazz bands on the side. As a child, Ferrick would often accompany her father to clubs on Boston's North Shore to watch the bands play. [1] She began taking classical violin lessons at the age of five, and then moved on to the piano. In elementary and junior high school, she learned the trumpet and bass. Altogether, she received 15 years of formal music training, including two years at Berklee College of Music. She dropped out to pursue a music career. [2]

Career

Ferrick playing bass guitar in 2006 Melissa Ferrick.jpg
Ferrick playing bass guitar in 2006

Ferrick began their career singing and playing in coffeehouses in the East Village, New York City. [3] They received a great deal of publicity in 1991 when they replaced, at the last minute, the opening act for the singer Morrissey on tour. They were subsequently signed to a recording contract with Atlantic Records and released their first two albums, Massive Blur , in 1993 and Willing to Wait, in 1995.

In 1996, they—in their words–"bottomed out" on alcohol. [4] After sobering up, they returned to music, signing with the indie label What Are Records?. Ferrick released three albums on the label; Made of Honor, Everything I Need, and Freedom, the latter inspired by Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope . [5] Their 1998 album Everything I Need was nominated for Album of the Year by the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA). [6] [7]

In 2000, Ferrick founded their own record label, Right On Records. The first studio album released on their own label was Skinnier Faster Live at the B.P.C..

In the Eyes of Strangers, released in October 2006, was the sixth album released on Right On Records. Ferrick partially financed the recording costs with song sales via their website. [8] Their fourteenth album, Goodbye Youth, was released September 2008. [9] In Spring 2010, they released an album of cover songs called Enough About Me. [10] In 2011, she released the album Still Right Here featuring original songs. [11]

During live performances, Ferrick mostly self-accompanies on a Collings OM3 SB acoustic guitar. They have also experimented with loop pedals and a range of accompaniments, including, in particular, brass instruments.

Ferrick's rigorous touring schedule generally includes more than 150 shows per year. [12] They play solo gigs in small to medium-sized clubs and numerous festivals, as well as larger venues accompanied by a band. In 2007, they performed at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and opened for Ani Difranco. Their song "Drive" from the Freedom album became popularly known as a "lesbian anthem". [13] [14]

In 2017, Spotify settled a class action lawsuit initiated by Ferrick and David Lowery who had alleged the company failed to pay proper royalties to musicians whose songs were streamed on the service. Spotify set aside US$43 million to compensate musicians, songwriters and publishers. [15]

Their musical inspirations include Bruce Springsteen, The Pretenders, Rickie Lee Jones, Paul Simon, Earth Wind and Fire, Tori Amos, Radiohead, Dave Matthews, and Joan Armatrading. [16]

Personal life

Melissa Ferrick identifies as queer and gender-nonconforming. [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

Ferrick uses she/they pronouns. [22]

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Etheridge</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1961)

Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist. Her eponymous debut album was released in 1988 and became an underground success. It peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 and its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in 1989. Her second album, Brave and Crazy, appeared that same year and earned Etheridge two more Grammy nominations. In 1992, Etheridge released her third album, Never Enough, and its lead single, "Ain't It Heavy", won Etheridge her first Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Auf der Maur</span> Canadian rock musician

Melissa Gaboriau Auf der Maur is a Canadian musician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Shocked</span> American singer-songwriter

Michelle Shocked is an American singer-songwriter. Her music has entered the Billboard Hot 100, been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and received an award for Folk Album of the Year at the CMJ New Music Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fanny (band)</span> American rock band

Fanny was an American rock band, active in the early to mid 1970s. They were one of the first all-female rock groups to achieve critical and commercial success, including two Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Cole</span> American singer (born 1968)

Paula Dorothy Cole is an American singer-songwriter and producer. After gaining attention for her performances as a vocalist on Peter Gabriel's 1993–1994 Secret World Tour, she released her first album, Harbinger, which suffered from a lack of promotion when the label, Imago Records, folded shortly after its release. Her second album, This Fire (1996), brought her worldwide acclaim, peaking at number 20 on the Billboard 200 album chart and producing two hit singles, the triple-Grammy nominated "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?", which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and "I Don't Want to Wait", which was used as the theme song of the television show Dawson's Creek. Cole was a featured performer in the 1996 prototype mini-tour for Lilith Fair, and also was a headliner for Lilith Fair in 1997 and 1998. She won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1998, and also became the first woman ever to be nominated for "Producer of the Year" in her own right in that same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LP (singer)</span> American musician (born 1981)

LP, sometimes credited by their birth name Laura Pergolizzi, is an American singer, musician and songwriter. LP has released seven albums and three EPs. LP has written songs for other artists including Cher, Rihanna, the Backstreet Boys, Leona Lewis, Mylène Farmer, Céline Dion and Christina Aguilera.

Ferron Foisy, who has mostly been known professionally as Ferron is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter and poet. In addition to gaining fame as one of Canada's most respected songwriters, Ferron, who is openly lesbian, became one of the earliest and most influential lyrical songwriters of the women's music circuit, and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Mary Gauthier and the Indigo Girls. From the mid-eighties on, Ferron's songwriting talents have been recognized and appreciated by music critics and broader audiences, with comparisons being made to the writing talents of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaki King</span> American guitarist and composer (born 1979)

Kaki King is an American guitarist and composer. King is known for her percussive and jazz-tinged melodies, energetic live shows, use of multiple tunings on acoustic and lap steel guitar, and her diverse range in different genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristine W</span> American musician and entrepreneur

Kristine Elizabeth Weitz, widely known by her stage name Kristine W, is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur. She is most widely known as a dance music artist. Born and raised in Pasco, Washington, she found early success competing in pageants and talent contests, winning Miss Washington and a preliminary swimsuit award as well as a NFT award in the Miss America pageant. Kristine W is now one of the most popular dance club artists of all time, with 17 #1s to date on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. She is currently listed among Billboard's 8 Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists, and she was ranked number three in Billboard's Top Dance Artists of the Decade. She is especially popular in the gay community and is an outspoken supporter of LGBT rights, frequently performing at pride rallies and charity events for pro-LGBT organizations throughout the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrice Rushen</span> American jazz pianist and R&B singer

Patrice Louise Rushen is an American jazz pianist and R&B singer. She is also a composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and music director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suede (singer)</span> Musical artist

Suede is an American pop and jazz singer. A well known artist in the LGBTQ community, she has an entry in An Encyclopaedia of Gay and Lesbian Recordings (1992).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Lowery (musician)</span> American singer-songwriter

David Charles Lowery is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, mathematician, and activist. He is the founder of the alternative rock band Camper Van Beethoven and the co-founder of Cracker, a more traditional rock band. Lowery released his first solo album, The Palace Guards, in February 2011.

Laurie Geltman, is an American rock singer-songwriter-guitarist. She studied at the Berklee College of Music as a film score major, and began performing in the early 1990s with the experimental rock group Vasco da Gama. She was a Boston Music Awards winner in 1998 for Outstanding Female Vocalist. After that, she began her solo career. She released her first album, Departure, herself, then her second album, No Power Steering on her own label. A year after its release, No Power Steering was re-released by Eastern Front Records. She also released her third album Motion Pictures, on her own label. Her song "Ghost in the House" appeared on the Respond I compilation, a benefit CD for domestic violence groups, which includes also songs from Patty Larkin, Melissa Ferrick, Jenny Reynolds and Faith Soloway among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Pureka</span> American acoustic singer-songwriter (born 1979)

Chris Pureka is a genderqueer American acoustic singer-songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Machine Records</span> American record label

Big Machine Records is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Specializing in country and pop artists, Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta and became a joint venture between Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith. The company concentrates on publishing, management, and merchandising and oversees imprints, such as Valory Music, that are part of the Big Machine Label Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrison Starr</span> American musician (born 1975)

Garrison Starr is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter/producer. Her major label debut, "18 Over Me" was released in 1997 (Geffen). Starr's shows have been described as "marrying pop smarts and Americana grit with a voice of remarkable power and clarity". Since that initial record, Starr has released over a dozen EPs and LPs while landing numerous placements on shows and movies like Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, Nashville, Hart of Dixie, Switched at Birth, Rookie Blue, Army Wives, and Brothers & Sisters, as well as commercial placements that include Pandora, Virgin Mobile, McDonald's, and Fisher Price.

Olivia Records is a women's music record label founded in 1973 by lesbian members of the Washington D.C. area. It was founded by Ginny Berson, Meg Christian, Judy Dlugacz, Jennifer Woodul, Kate Winter and five other women. Olivia Records sold two million records and produced about 40 albums during its twenty years of operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berklee Performance Center</span>

The Berklee Performance Center is a 1,215-seat theatre located on Massachusetts Avenue in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest theatre space on the Berklee College of Music campus and is used primarily for college-affiliated activities. Presenters from outside the Berklee community also rent it for performances of all kinds. In 2009, the Berklee Performance Center hosted a total of 200 events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Wong (producer)</span> American musician and producer (born 1974)

Alex Liang Wong is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulfpeck</span> American funk band

Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, six studio albums and one live album through their own record label. The band gained recognition in 2014 for releasing Sleepify, a silent album that exposed a loophole in Spotify's royalty distribution and funded an admission-free tour. The band is one of the first to sell out Madison Square Garden without a manager or backing label, and released the recorded performance as a live album in 2019. The band's most recent album, Schvitz, was released in December 2022.

References

  1. ↑ "Behind the Scenes – Melissa Ferrick". Camp Betty Campout 2005. 2005. Archived from the original on May 3, 2008. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Melissa Ferrick's learned a lot at Berklee — as student and professor". December 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ Follos, Tim (December 5, 2006). "Today's Top Stop: Melissa Ferrick". Express Night Out. Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  4. ↑ Robinson, Matthew S. (March 15, 2001). "Interview with Melissa Ferrick". MusicDish Industry e-Journal. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  5. ↑ Jess (March 2, 2012). "Melissa Ferrick Is Right Here, Still: The Autostraddle Interview". Autostraddle . Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  6. ↑ "The Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards: The History". Queer Music Heritage. Archived from the original on September 25, 2003. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Artists & Sound Clips: Melissa Ferrick". Girl Musician Online. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  8. ↑ Myers, Chuck (July 27, 2007). "Don't call Melissa Ferrick a folkie – she's a rocker". PopMatters.com. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  9. ↑ Wootton, Sharon (August 1, 2008). "Melissa Ferrick: Grammy nominee to show talents on Monroe stage". The Daily Herald. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  10. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (March 24, 2010). "Melissa Ferrick has it covered". AfterEllen . Archived from the original on July 21, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Melissa Ferrick: Still Right Here". September 15, 2011.
  12. ↑ Belge, Kathy (2008). "An Interview with Melissa Ferrick". About.com . Archived from the original on September 19, 2008. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  13. ↑ Foucher, David (July 14, 2006). "Melissa Ferrick Drives On". EDGE Media Network. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Lesbian icon". Rochester Pride Guide: Pride 2011. Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley. July 2011. p. 6. Retrieved April 3, 2020. (via issuu)
  15. ↑ Levin, Robert (May 26, 2017). "Spotify Settles Class Action Lawsuits Filed By David Lowery And Melissa Ferrick With $43.4 Million Fund". Stereogum. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  16. ↑ Harper, Marques G. (September 16, 2006). "Melissa Ferrick to play Pride in the Park". The Roanoke Times. Archived from the original on May 26, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  17. ↑ Hensley, Dennis (June 22, 2004). "Why did Melissa cross the road? Melissa Ferrick talks about taking risks to put out her latest CD, The Other Side". The Advocate . Archived from the original on March 16, 2008. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  18. ↑ hsmith (July 10, 2008). "America's Most Captivating Couples 2008, Natalia & Melissa". GO . Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  19. ↑ Shapiro, Gregg (May 27, 2004). "Another Side : An interview with Melissa Ferrick". PrideSource. Archived from the original on June 12, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  20. ↑ Robertson, Jessica. "Rockin' Out Interview: Melissa Ferrick". Spinner.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  21. ↑ "Melissa Ferrick Comes Out to Provincetown". The Provincetown Independent. October 6, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  22. ↑ "Melissa Ferrick (@melissaferrick) • Instagram photos and videos".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.