Melissa Cox
owes her music career to a missed curfew.
At 14, she
came home late, as teenagers often do, and was grounded by her parents.
“My dad came
into my room and said ‘You can’t go out with friends, go on the computer, or
watch TV. So you’re going to do something useful and learn guitar,’”
recalls Cox. “If that had not happened, I don’t know what I would be doing
with my life right now.”
One week
later, Cox wrote her first song. A year later, she recorded her first
album. Now, a decade later, Cox is a national touring artist, mandolin and
ukulele player with six albums, her latest work titled Harmonious
Maladies.
Her
determination and resolve come through in her voice, which has been
described as sounding like “a cross between Loreena McKennitt and
Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick” (Sing Out! Magazine). Indeed,
there is a New Age / World quality to Cox's songs and style, which are
rooted solidly in classic rock. "Some kids ride around in the car seat
listening to Barney or Sesame Street songs. My mom had the radio auto-set to
classic rock stations. By the time I was three, I knew all the words by
Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, and Elton John."
With a belt as
impressive as her falsetto, the classically trained singer jolts audiences
to attention with one of her power ballads (“Courage”, “Vicarious”), sooths
them with a haunting neo-classical Latin aria (“Valedico”), and evokes
eruptions of laughter with her dry wit and tongue-in-cheek humor (“To Carrie
Fisher, with love”).
She writes
lyrics that take on a poetic tone reminiscent of Paul Simon, Tori Amos, and
Robert Plant, but never to the point of total obscurity, and always towards
the goal of reaching some truth about herself or about life – “What
difference can I make when all women mistake their ‘lovelessness’ with
hate?” and “Guess the only way to get famous these days is to go Gaga
half naked at the cabaret.”
Her talent and
tenacity have helped her win several songwriting accolades, including
Best Singer/Songwriter by Spark Magazine, Best Celtic Fusion
Singer by Celtic MP3 Music Magazine, and Best Musical Folk
Artist by the Delaware Division of Arts. She was also a finalist in the
National Song of the Year Contest for her song “elijah, elijah.”
She has shared
the stage with the Spin Doctors, Sister Hazel, Smash Mouth, Three Dog
Night, Cyril Neville, Catie Curtis and many others, and has
headlined several of the largest festivals and events in the U.S., including
the Hawaiian Scottish Festival, the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon,
D.C.’s Live! on Woodrow Wilson Plaza series, and hundreds more.
She has also made appearances on 88.5 WXPN Philadelphia, 93.7 FM WSTW,
and CBS/NBC TV Hawaii, among many others.
A true
independent artist, Cox self-published her six albums and two music videos.
Harmonious Maladies was released independently with the
support of her fans through
Kickstarter and showcases not only her musical and writing talents,
but also her abilities as a producer and sound engineer. To complete
Maladies, she teamed up with Marc Moss of Target Studios (David
Bromberg, Angel Band) and emerging engineer William Inglis of Denver.
Cox, who is
also the lead singer of Neo-Celtic band Mythica, is never satisfied to
remain musically stagnant, and has begun studying the technology and art of
live looping (demonstrated in this
video), which is already taking her live performances and career to new
heights.
Cox’s other
albums include Dangerous Little Monster (2006), Vicarious
(2007), and Live is Good (2009), which were all released with Mythica,
as well as her earliest albums Aurophobia and Goddess. |