Melissa Warner
Acoustic Guitar, Vocals

Melissa Warner has been playing music most of her life. She began classical violin lessons at the age of eight, but always felt confined by the rigidity of the classical style. Modern music offered her the headroom she found missing in classical music.

Eventually, Melissa felt driven to create and perform her own songs. She received an acoustic guitar for Christmas in 1993 and began to teach herself to play. Six months later she performed solo for the first time. She soon became a regular and a favorite at local open mics and coffee shops. At this late date, she has performed in nearly every club in Salt Lake City and many other venues throughout the West.

By 1997 she had formed her own band, consisting of local cool guys Adam Sorensen on drums and Dan Salini on fiddle and lap steel plus Portland bass player Junior Ruppel. The current band line-up features Bill Floyd on drums, David Prill on electric guitar, Jimmy Stoddard on bass, and sideman Dan (Salini) on fiddle and pedal steel, and of course, herself. During 2000 & 2001, Melissa was delighted to be able to play opening slots for artists like Alejandro Escovedo, Michelle Malone, Sister 7 and Sally Taylor. The highlight of her performances in 2002 was the opportunity to open for John Hiatt at the Red Butte Gardens Summer concert series.

July, 1999 Melissa released her debut cd, "emperor norton". The disc appeared among the Salt Lake City Weekly's top 30 local disks for that year. She has been an active member of indiegrrl (a national network of female musicians) since July 2000. She performed in and helped organize the Salt Lake Concerts of the indiegrrl national tours in 2000 & 2001 and the Boise concert in 2002.

In January of 2001 Melissa and her band performed live on KRCL. She released the three songs (which will appear on her upcoming CD) as a live EP -- "light fuse and get away." A song from that recording was one of two local tracks which appeared on the "KRCL live" compilation featuring such national acts as Robert Earle Keen, Michelle Shocked and Dar Williams. Currently, Melissa is in the studio working on her second CD, entitled "orange" and due out in Spring 2003.

"This is the album that the fans of Melissa Warner have waited for. Warner carries the audience with her along an introspective ride that brims with honesty . . ." — Martin Renzhofer, Salt Lake Tribune

". . . one of the coolest hybrids you’ll hear in Happy Valley . . . [The songs are] delivered with Warner’s unmistakable lilt that’s strong enough for a man, but made for a woman . . ." — Bill Frost, Salt Lake City Weekly

"Her music is real. Her lyrics are up front and honest — two very good qualities for someone who wants to stay away from the drippy, overly emotional stuff . . ." — Lucy Campbell, Deseret News

"Melissa's vocals are brilliant, sensitive, expressive, intensely passionate, and at times so powerful or heart-stirring that your hairs stand on end . . ."— Craig Helms, Domain of the Notorious WebOManiac

"Lyrics both mourning and joyous, a rare quality for a songwriter to believably muster, mark Warner as a performer perhaps destined for something bigger than Salt Lake City's music scene . . . — Dan Nailen, Salt Lake Tribune

emperor norton, 1999

Available online from CDBaby.com