It's the voice.
Yes, there are also her Latina good looks, but it's the Melissa Ivey voice that is particularly memorable: sultry, self-assured, upbeat, seductive.
She got her start in music at nine when a musician came to her school and inspired her to take violin lessons. At 13 she picked up her mother's bass guitar and taught herself to play. At 14, it switched the electric guitar. A year later, she stumbled across a pick-up band practicing in a storage room and within a year won their high school talent contest. The band was called Manic Notion, and became one of the top punk bands based in San Jose.
In 2002, she moved to Denver and started singing at open mic nights and built up a loyal following of fans. After 3 years of working in local clubs, she became known as one of the hottest talents in Denver, and in 2005 was voted Number 1 by the readers of Westword Magazine in the Singer/Songwriter category.
February 2006 - After a year of touring and nonstop songwriting, Melissa chose 5 songs to record. The title song "Lovers and Stars" got airplay right away on Denver's classic rock station, KQMT (99.5 FM The Mountain) on Jake Schroeder's Mountain Homegrown hour to rave reviews. KTCL (93.3 FM) soon followed suite, local DJ Alf also heard the magic and included the track on his weekly show.
Dave Herrera's (music editor -Westword magazine) local Beatdown dedicated an entire article to Melissa and the song. To quote Dave "this delicious pop ditty hits a sweet spot with me like no recording since the Fray's early demos. It's a quantum leap beyond anything she's produced before - a track that evokes Mary Lou Lord as much as it does Sheryl Crow -- Ivey's most polished effort to date." Ivey was named Best Singer/Songwriter again in 2006 by Westword, Colorado's major alternative weekly.
By the end of 2006, more opportunitues opened up and she landed a lead role in a cartoon series in Spain. While in Madrid, she studied Spanish and sang with Europe's top recording stars.
In 2007, she licensed her first song to a TV show, and is currently working on new songs and recordings. Her musical career as a songwriter and performer has taken off as more TV and film producers request her original songs. This year she has done several studio projects including Eric Sanders, Alicia Fall, Chris Guillot and is currently working on a new animation project with Mighty Fudge Studios.
Glad you have the music going again:) Yes,We will gig together--I say we do an Improve Beach show in Hawaii:) Yeah,text Lnz and we will go from there:) Miss ya Doll.
