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SMALL TOWN GIRL
Melissa Bajric |
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One
of the great things about editing
ACN is
the fact that I am pleasantly surprised when I hear
an album that I’d missed out on or overlooked, and
then discover some pure country magic – and
Melissa’s album sits right smack bang in that
wonderful category.
I’d pidgeon-holed
Melissa (only through ignorance) as a young female
bush balladeer, but SMALL TOWN GIRL is much, much
more than that. This young singer has a unique vocal
delivery that is as Country as can be. Her soft
vibrato is as perfect as you remember hearing some
of the genre’s classic female artists of the past
possessing.
First up you can
revel in the five beaut original Melissa tracks, the
highlight of which is a toss up between
Listen To The Rain
or the title track – the current radio single
getting lots of spins. You’ll find some spot on
observations in the lyrics of her songs and you’re
put on notice that here’s a songwriter worthy of
your immediate attention.
Melissa then takes
us on a poignant flashback with her worthy retelling
of Joy McKean’s beautiful
Wind-Up Gramophone
before she revs up for a top gear version of Norma
O’Hara Murphy’s
Truck Driving Man.
There’s a definite
Australian feel to this album – traditional,
heartfelt and honest. One of the highlights is a
great cut of the Louvin Brothers’
Are You Wasting My
Time – also worthy of plenty of radio
attention.
Lindsay Butler has
done the production honours here and the LBS A-team
are as tasty as ever – especially Lawrie Minson’s
subtle harmonica cuts and Mark Moulynox’s pedal
steel runs.
A self proclaimed
bush ballad singer, Melissa is more than that, as
this album showcases. She’s also well aware of where
traditional country sits and thankfully she can
deliver the goods.
Here’s small town
girl with a big heart for Country Music – and isn’t
that what we all want to hear?
- Jon Wolfe
Australasian Country News
17th November 2006
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BUSH
BEAUTY
by
Deborah Minter
Pretty
twenty-one year
old MELISSA
BAJRIC has been
making her way
in the Bush
Ballad genre
since her early
teens.
Unlike some
young
performers, she
isn’t confused
musically; she
knows exactly
what direction
her music is
taking her.
"As a young kid
all my friends
were listening
to the ‘popular’
music," Melissa
said. "It never
did anything for
me. I’d go home
and put SLIM
DUSTY on. I
found that the
Bush Ballads
were something
that was real to
me, something I
could
understand."
Melissa recorded
her first album
with Drover
Music when she
was just
sixteen. "On my
first album the
songs were those
I’d been singing
since my junior
talent quest
days," she said.
"Looking back
you can hear how
young I was."
Melissa ‘cut her
performance
teeth’ in shows
with
‘mature-age’
balladeer BOB
EASTER. "I used
to watch Bob
sing when I was
four years old
and he was a
superstar to
me," Melissa
smiled. "My
first trip to
Mildura (Country
Music Festival)
was just after
the release of
my first album.
I was a little
nervous. I
walked into one
of the rooms
back stage and
it was full of
men, all my
Dad’s age or
older. I felt so
out of place.
But after two or
three shows I
found out they
were all so
nice. They
really gave me
encouragement."
"You’re put into
an adult
environment
there (in the
studio and on
the stage);
everyone around
you is a lot
older. There are
a lot of very
helpful people
in the Bush
Ballad arena,
especially when
you start out so
young. There’s a
lot to learn
from everybody.
I’ve also had a
lot of help with
making the
transition from
singing strictly
Bush Ballad
music to the way
my style has
developed. For
my second album,
I’ve been
writing and
experimenting
with a little
bit different
style to my
first album."
Melissa’s second
album Small Town
Girl has just
been released,
once again
recorded with
the renowned
LINDSAY BUTLER
as producer and
on the Drover
label. "Lindsay
made everything
so easy," she
said. "I could
really put my
trust in him,
but he always
made me feel
like my input
was important."
This time
Melissa has five
of her own
original songs
on the album.
"Some of those I
wrote very
recently," she
said. "Luckiest
Girl was written
after I had
started
recording. I had
put down a few
songs already
and was taking a
break." Well,
from recording
at least.
Melissa was
appearing on the
Festival
circuit. "You’d
get home from
one festival,
turn around
twice and jump
back in the car
to get to the
next festival,"
she said. "I
wrote Luckiest
Girl between my
house and the
first service
station."
"We live in a
little town with
a local pub, a
corner shop and
a service
station; that’s
it. There was a
time when you
could walk down
the street and
you would know
everybody.
That’s starting
to change. There
are a lot of new
houses going up,
new people
moving in, new
attitudes, more
distance. I felt
a bit like a
stranger in my
own town. I
wanted to write
a song to
capture that
small town
attitude before
it disappears so
I wrote Small
Town Girl."
"Everybody needs
a little place
where they can
spend time on
their own. I was
sitting down
beside the river
with the birds
singing and the
wind in the
trees - even the
cows in the
paddock mooing.
The song Morning
Bird just came
to me. Everyone
goes through
tough times in
their lives and
this song is a
message to take
time to
appreciate the
little things."
"I’m always
going to stay
true to the Bush
Ballad style,"
she said
adamantly. "But
it’s also nice
to explore the
other sides of
county music. I
do try to stay
as traditional
as possible, but
there’s more to
traditional
country music
than just Bush
Ballads."
Capital News
July 2006 Vol 31
No 7 |
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SMALL TOWN GIRL
Deborah Minter
Bush Balladeers are supposed to be weather-beaten craggy old men… aren’t they? Certainly not these days, with young MELISSA BAJRIC promoting a brand new image of fresh faced beauty to the genre, along with other handsome young faces such as AMOS MORRIS and ANITA REE. Melissa has become quite an accomplished writer as well, as her new album proves, with title track Small Town Girl just one of five of her own compositions of the twelve tracks. Morning Bird is a sweet waltz-time track with an engaging yodelling refrain. Luckiest Girl is happy and upbeat. Listen To The Rain brings encouragement to rain-starved farmers. Little Girl In Me reminds us just how young this fresh talent still is. Melissa also has recorded several favourite classics, Truck Drivin’ Man, Are You Wasting My Time and Wind-Up Gramophone. Her delicate vibrato is gentle and sweet to the ear - not weather-beaten or craggy or old at all! Drover DE008CD
Capital News June 2006 Vol
31 No 6 |
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DROVIN'
ALL OVER
BOB EASTER,
MELISSA BAJRIC &
GRAHAM RODGER
Drover Music is
a collective of
dedicated bush
balladeers who
consistently
produce high
quality
traditional
Australian
country music.
This newest CD,
produced by the
renowned Lindsay
Butler Studios
is an easy and
effortless
mélange of the
three
performers,
either as solo
or in duet.
The songs,
written, for the
most part, by
the artists, are
fine traditional
ballads, tales
of love, family
and Aussie
culture.
I was taken with
the opening
track, GRAHAM
RODGER’s Missing
In Action, a
tale about the
forgotten side
of the Anzac Day
march.
MELISSA BAJRIC
has a light
sweet vibrato
that compliments
the veteran
voices of her
label-mates. In
combination with
BOB EASTER, the
comparisons with
the team of SLIM
DUSTY and ANNE
KIRKPATRICK
cannot be
avoided, and is
highlighted in
the duets, Like
Family To Me and
the classic, The
Kingdom I Call
Home.
This album
should sit well
beside your Slim
Dusty
collection.
Capital News
October 2003 Vol
28 No 10 |
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