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What You Might Not Have Known About Melanie

Melanie played to a crowd of 450,000 (give or take depending on who you ask) at Woodstock Festival in 1969.

Some called her the female Bob Dylan because she helped break open the singer/songwriter genre we know today. Others were inspired by her, like Elton John who told her he wrote “Crocodile Rock” because she made it okay to perform silly songs. But Melanie is best known for her chart-topping hit “Brand New Key,” also known as “The Roller Skate Song.” Though it was simply by chance, curiosity and courage that Melanie changed musical history.

Melanie received her slot at Woodstock Music & Art Festival by happenstance. “Peter [her late husband] and I had an office in the same building as the people organizing Woodstock; I asked to come because it sounded fun – three days of peace, love and music. I didn’t realize it would be such a big deal,” explained Melanie. She said her Woodstock moment wasn’t hitting traffic miles away from the festival or walking into a hotel filled with media and musicians including Sly Stone and Janis Joplin or even getting dropped off by a helicopter in a muddy place; it was when Joan Baez heard Melanie coughing and sent her manager to give Melanie a pot of tea.

That night Melanie connected with the crowd in a way that sparked – literally. “After I performed [“Birthday of the Rain”] a song I had just written,” she recollected, “I jumped and ran off stage. I knew they liked it because I could feel the flow of human connectedness.” But she also knew they liked it because candles were lit throughout the crowd. Soon she became linked with the lighting of candles at her concerts. Now, decades later, people are still lighting things at concerts everywhere and most don’t know the tradition was started at Melanie’s Woodstock performance. “So bring your lighters, candles and apps,” joked Melanie.

But Melanie’s success was originally a surprise to many, including her. No one in the music industry of the ‘60s thought she could make it because she didn’t fit the mold. “I didn’t even have the right name,” Melanie said, “I emerged in spite of myself and if it wasn’t for my husband there wouldn’t be a Melanie.” She went from turntable hit artist, meaning people knew the song because DJs played it on the radio but they couldn’t buy it because the record label didn’t stock it in stores, to a one-name folk music icon spanning four decades and counting.

After playing all around the world as a peace advocate, Melanie returns to Door County. Her first visit was about nine years ago when she performed in Sturgeon Bay. “It was one of the few trips I took with my husband Peter, son Beau-Jarred and [oldest] granddaughter Christiana. I made her keep a journal, we drove from Nashville to Door County and she wrote down all of the wonderful adventures including cherry picking. It was magic. I hesitated to come back [because] it was so magical” Melanie reminisced.

Melanie has been performing with Beau-Jarred for years. She noted “on stage we’re just a group of artists but we’re connected and it’s an amazing experience to give birth to your best friend and he is so in tune with what I am going to do. He plays beautiful counter melodies; where a musician shines is where someone reads into another layer you never knew existed.”

Melanie will take the stage of the Peg Egan Performing Arts Center Amphitheater on June 23 at 7 pm with her son, a guitar virtuoso and co-producer of her most recent album Ever Since You’ve Never Heard of Me.

The Peg Egan Center is located on Church Street in Egg Harbor, and all concerts are free and open to the public. In case of rain, concerts are held at the Calvary Methodist Church 4650 Country Rd. E, Egg Harbor. For more information about the concert call 920.493.5979.

Writer’s Note:

I’ve been listing to Melanie since I was young. She opened my eyes to look at every cow and wish they’d “moo” my name – something I still secretly do. She sang a philosophy that I live by with lyrics like “I’ll live on vegetables and I’ll grow on seeds…I’ll live on life and my life will live on me.” She encouraged me to find a pet beetle and taught me how to talk to him; I never did find one to keep as a pet but it certainly gave me a different outlook on bugs. (If you don’t know what I’m referring to listen to “I Don’t Eat Animals” and “Alexander Beetle.”)

I could have gone into countless details about the extensive career of Melanie, but no matter what I wrote on this page you will only truly get to know her by immersing yourself in her music, which flies from the words and melodies that breath life into her ever-evolving future history.