AbOut SaRa...

Sara Melson grew up in a small town in Indiana, the daughter of two college professors, in a house with books covering every wall from floor to ceiling. Her parents also had an impressive record collection. Sara spent hours after school memorizing every word and note of classics by the Beatles, Stones, Dylan, The Band, Bowie, Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, the Velvet Underground, Carole King, and Van Morrison. Classically trained on the piano, she taught herself to play the guitar, and began to wed her own words and poems from her journals with melodies to form her first songs.

Sara was accepted to Harvard, and while there as a scholarship student, worked as a dishwasher in the school cafeteria by day and as a waitress in a local Cambridge bar by night. It was also during these years that the Brit-pop influence of the Verve, Blur, and Oasis, as well as Americana-based songwriters such as Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, and Jeff Tweedy began to shape her sound and songwriting.

After graduation, Sara moved to Los Angeles, where while perfecting her songs and forming several band incarnations, she worked teaching music to kids, teaching yoga, and acting in various film and television projects. Meanwhile she obsessively demo'd and reworked her songs and gigged around LA, where she shared the stage with Silversun Pickups, Inara George, Ben Lee, Jill Sobule, Neil Halstead, and BRMC, among others, and performed as guest vocalist with Mojave 3 on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic with Nic Harcourt. An opening spot for Juliana Hatfield at renowned local club Spaceland led to an acoustic tour of Japan, where she promoted her self-released Five Song EP. The EP was selected by Launch.com/Yahoo as a "Top Ten Pick" in its Cool as Folk Radiocast, along with Beck, Damien Rice, and Sondre Lerche. Tracks have aired on Indie 103.1, XM Satellite Radio, and KCRW, and have been featured in the ABC television show Men In Trees, the Viacom teen hit South Of Nowhere, and in the independent films Spectres and Safe Harbour.

Sara then turned to focus her efforts on recording her self-produced debut full length, Dirty Mind. The day after she finished mixing the record, she accompanied a friend to a party at Nettwerk Records, where she met CEO Terry McBride. The first topic of conversation that the two bonded over was yoga; from there, Terry asked to hear Sara's CD. He passed it along to his partner at the label, and Sara was signed shortly thereafter.

Sara performs both with and without a band, and has been called "a female Jeff Tweedy." Her timeless songs blur the boundaries between rock, folk, and pop; her soulful voice is at once tender and strong, lyrics introspective, honest, witty and precise. Dirty Mind was featured on iTunes What's Hot, climbing the iTunes pop chart within two days of its release, and the album's first track was featured in its entirety in the climactic final scene of a recent two-part episode of Grey's Anatomy. Her songs are about love and lust, growth and change, and are filled with faith in a better future, both personal and global. Despite harsh realities, Sara's idealism and optimism shine through.

With Dirty Mind, Sara was a featured artist on the Myspace Music homepage, and Yahoo Music chose her as their New Buzz Artist and featured her video in their Who's Next/User's Choice promotion. Sara also caught the eyes and ears of the producers of NBC's new 20-something show Quarterlife, at one of her recent Los Angeles shows; the day they launched the new show's website, Sara was the featured artist on their homepage. She will be aired on American Airlines' Radio and featured in their in-flight magazine this fall and was also selected for the Filter Magazine Summer Compilation CD.

Sara's four self-produced videos can be viewed on Youtube.