Grammy Award Winning Artist Melissa Manchester

Today on The Neil Haley Show, Neil Haley will interview Grammy
Award Winning Artist Melissa Manchester.


Let’s hear it for the boys! More than 25 years after Melissa
Manchester released Tribute, her 1989 album that honored the
great female singers who influenced her, she turns the tables
with The Fellas, a radiant encomium to the men, including Frank
Sinatra, Mel Tormé, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin, and the iconic
songs they made famous.


Singing with a verve and emotional vulnerability that immediately
captivates, the Grammy winner inventively reimagines these
be-loved standards. She turns “Chances Are” into a sly bossa nova
and scats with seemingly impossible ease on “Love Is Just Around
The Corner,” while bringing an understated urgency to “Night and
Day.”


Many of these tunes embedded themselves into Manchester’s musical
DNA while she was growing up on New York City’s Up-per West Side.
“These were the artists and songs that were on the radio as my
family ate dinner,” she says. “I am deeply famil-iar with this
world.” Indeed, Manchester brings a nuanced un-derstanding to the
songs’ delicate phrasing and lyrical construc-tion that would
baffle lesser singers.


Manchester’s 21st album opens with a rambunctious, horn-filled
version of “Ain’t That A Kick In the Head” that swings
exuberant-ly from the rafters. “I wanted to invite the audience
in, right away, to what the album and song was going to feel
like. When the whole band yells out ‘Beautiful!,’ it’s so
indicative of a bygone era when you’d hear a band chime in.”