Story by Rebecca Pivetta
Photo by Marie Freeman

I thought every 15 year old girl wanted to be a rock and roller,” says Melissa Reaves, laughing as she recalls lip-synching to her mom’s Aretha Franklin albums. She displayed musical talent early, beginning her 17 years of classical violin training at age 6.

Growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, she attended Bob Jones University from first through tenth grade. When she was 16 she tried out for a band, landing the job. “I got to do the chick singer’s parts. And then I got expelled from school for drinking a beer,” she says with a rueful laugh. Reaves, an only child, then moved to Jefferson with her mother.

Her tone shifting, she shares, “My father killed himself when I had just turned 4. There was a lot of shame around it.” She shakes her head as she talks about her years of intense partying as a way of coping with the tragedy.

“I hooked up with some pretty sketchy characters. I’m glad I lived through it,” she says with a half-smile, describing the “Southern-rock-moonshine-drinkin’-drug-doin’-biker” style of music she performed.

Reflecting on some rough venues, she says, “I had to set the stage that I’m the boss here. That enabled me to get tough. I just started having to come up with a voice that was powerful.”

She admitted one band member “egged me on. He got me up at this raging party and so I sang some blues that night. I unleashed it.” Melissa had to make up the words on the spot, good preparation for the spontaneity she would later bring to her music. The audience and band members liked it, and she kept working to improve what is now her signature style.

Her most recent recording, Rough Cuts , seems to her a miraculous event. En route to the studio in Manhattan she learned her guitarist had decided not to participate in the project. It was a discouraging moment, but, “ We can’t do the gig. That’s not in my vocabulary,” says Reaves.

She recalls making a joke. “I’ll just get a honky-tonk piano,” she’d said, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew, “Yeah! That would work!” Less than 24 hours before the recording session would begin, Melissa called the studio and asked for a piano player. “I got the number, I called, he was home, and he said, ‘That sounds like fun.’ ”

Other talent and financial details fell into place, too. “There were little burning bushes everywhere,” Melissa says with wonder, convinced her Higher Power has a firm hold of her life. “The Universe said, ‘You said you wanted to go this route. You are going to do this. You are going to own this.’ “

Reaves is pleased with and proud of the finished product, her fourth recording, but the first she has produced on her own. The CD features 6 richly textured songs showing the full range of Melissa’s vocal and instrumental capabilities from rocking throaty blues to evocative ballads filled with deep longing. Amazingly, the album that she released is the ‘bed tracks’ version – unfinished, according to the rules.

But Melissa Reaves is the first one to admit to her preference for the non-traditional. “There were some magic moments there. I was afraid to mess with the energy achieved,” she says of her decision to release the work in its pristine form.

Inside the case is a painting of a caped super heroine bearing the inscription Queen of Action. The artwork is by a friend who painted it after one of Reaves’ shows when her band threw in a bit of ‘rock theatre,’ the musicians transforming into heroes and villains and battling it out on stage.

She was surprised when she saw the original poster, but had to admit, “That does speak to who I am.”

Reaves, who opened for Robert Plant at the Nottingham Ballroom, UK, in 2000 and for Leon Russell in Tacoma in 2004, also shares, “I’ve played at a hair salon.” About her calling, she states, “It’s a lot to separate yourself from society – it’s not traditional, not sure-fire – no, Mom, I don’t have health insurance yet.” She laughs and continues. “This is a gift. I need to be using it and that should be my motivation. I’m a perfectionist and a workaholic,” she states unapologetically.

During her recent seven-week nationwide tour, during which she played many spontaneous gigs with local musicians, Reaves made a stop in the prestigious art community of Terlingua, Texas. “You have to work to get there and be made of some kind of salt,” she says with wonder.

Without question, the Queen of Action has what it takes on both counts.


Visit Melissa's web site: www.melissareaves.com