Nashville-based songwriter and past NewSong winner Mel Bryant continues to treat fans to new music, and we eagerly await each new release! Follow Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers on YouTube for a new video every week.
To learn more about Mel Bryant and her upcoming album release on NewSong Recordings, read our Q&A with the artist here.
Mel Bryant, grand prize winner of the 2018 NewSong competition, will release a new single on Feb. 14, 2020.
The band will premier “I Love You I’m Sorry” live on Today In Nashville, News channel 4, on February 13, and celebrate with a show at The Basement that night.
Mel Bryant records new EP at Echo Mountain Recording Studios.
The NewSong team was thrilled to welcome 2018 NewSong Grand Prize Winner, Mel Bryant, to Echo Mountain Recording Studios last month. The songwriter and her Nashville-based band, Mel Bryant and the Mercy Makers, were joined by producer and NewSong founder, Gar Ragland. Melding classic rock and contemporary indie influences, Bryant has compiled a group of songs that tackle big themes, ranging from love and relationships to social justice.
The opportunity to record at Echo Mountain is part of the musician’s grand prize package, and the EP will be released on NewSong Recordings in 2020.
Mel took a break from recording to answer a few questions about the upcoming record.
Mel Bryant: A lot of the songs are justice focused, in a way. There is kind of a dichotomy between the songs that are about, you know, relationship stuff — the really relatable, personal things that everyone goes through … and the songs that zoom out a bit and look at more grand issues that are less personal and more political.
I like to think of things that are political, not in terms of candidates or government issues, but, instead, political as in a woman’s inability to walk alone on a street alone past midnight. That’s a political issue to me, and that is the kind of thing I like to write about. Or the fact that when I was in college, I was scared of being shot on my campus. That’s a political issue, and it’s something that we all have a stake in and we are all worried about and we all want to fix. Those are the things that are important to my music: things that matter. Sometimes things that matter are life and death situations, and sometimes things that matter are when I can’t communicate properly in my relationships. Making those statements in these songs was really important to me.
This has definitely been our best treatment of a recording setup that we have ever had. The crew is so accommodating and patient. The energy in here is amazing. There is such a beautiful ambiance, and the availability of the gear they have here is like nothing we have been able to access before, so from that standpoint it’s been incredible. But also just the feeling of being in that cathedral with stained glass light coming through. And, of course, it sounds amazing.
From a sound perspective, the EP is a marriage of the different sides that this band has been developing over the past few years. We definitely have one foot in really classic rock roots, blues, and delta music roots, coming from our guitarist, and then we have the more modern roots of my childhood musical influences and now. We are continually inspired by music being put out and indie rock influences. So certain songs are more in the classic rock tradition, and certain songs are in the modern. Our goal has been marrying those ideas within each song, and within the whole EP, showing that these two things can coexist to create something that isn’t derivative of classic rock or just another indie rock band. We are paying homage to the historic greats and constantly taking in new musical influences and applying that as well.
For more about Mel Bryant and the Mercy Makers, visit the band’s website. Stay tuned for updates about the new EP release via NewSong Recordings in 2020!
NewSong is proud to announce that Mel Bryant — winner of the 2018 NewSong Competition — will return to Asheville this November as a guest performer for this year’s final competition.
The 18th NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition final event takes place at Isis Music Hall on Saturday, November 23. Tickets available here.
We are thrilled to have Bryant return to the Isis stage. We recently asked the artist about her music career post-win, as well as her advice for the new group of finalists.
“Focus less on yourself and more on who you’re surrounded by,” says Bryant. “The best thing about the NewSong Competition, aside from the amazing prizes and the beautiful show that’s put on for the finale, is the community created by all the wonderful musicians that have come through this program.”
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There aren’t many albums that are more iconic or influential than the Beatles’ Abbey Road. Arts Brookfield and NewSong Music have come together to present the New York City spring outdoor concert series ‘Come Together: New original music inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ last studio album. This Wednesday, May 29, we are excited to welcome 2018 NewSong Grand Prize Winner, Mel Bryant and the Mercy Makers, to perform.
The ‘Come Together’ series features five free outdoor lunchtime concerts taking place every Wednesday in May. Each concert begins at 12:30 PM at the Grace Plaza, located at 1114 6th Avenue, just north of Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan.
We took some time to talk to 2007 NewSong Music Competition finalist and ‘Come Together’ performer Mel Bryant to learn more about her songwriting, and how she has been influenced by the the well-loved album.
To learn more about Mel Bryant and the Mercy Makers, visit the band’s website.
To Join our ‘Come Together’ Facebook event, click here.
MEL BRYANT WINS THE 17TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL NEWSONG MUSIC PERFORMANCE & SONGWRITING COMPETITION
AS GRAND PRIZE WINNER, BRYANT RECEIVES AN EP RECORDING PROJECT AT ECHO MOUNTAIN RECORDING STUDIOS, RELEASED ON THE NEWSONG RECORDINGS LABEL, A PERFORMANCE SHOWCASE AT 2019 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL’S ESTEEMED ASCAP MUSIC CAFE AND MORE
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Nashville-based singer, instrumentalist and songwriter Mel Bryant has been named this year’s grand prize winner of the seventeenth annual NewSong Music Performance and Songwriting Competition. Bryant – along with seven other finalists – was selected from nearly 800 entries to this year’s contest. The finalists performed at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, NC on Saturday, December 15, in front of a sold-out crowd. The panel of music industry judges included Gar Ragland, music producer and co-founder of NewSong Music; Diana Ezerins, director of public programs at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and Elysa Marden, Vice President of Arts Brookfield in New York City.
“This year’s live performance finals of the NewSong Competition was a particularly special and noteworthy one for us,” said Ragland. “Not only was the caliber of performances and songs as high as it’s ever been, it marks the first time we’ve hosted the event here in Asheville, our beloved headquarters now for the last six plus years. Moving this event to Asheville from New York’s Lincoln Center was long overdue, especially given how amazing and appreciative the fans of live music are here. The energy, enthusiasm and support that the audience provided our finalists’ made for a really magical experience for everyone involved.”
As the grand prize winner, Bryant will receive a fully funded six-song EP, recorded and mixed at Asheville’s own Echo Mountain Recording Studios and released on the NewSong Recordings label. Bryant also receives a performance showcase at the esteemed 2019 ASCAP Music Café at the Sundance Film Festival (January 31) in Park City, Utah and a featured performance in the 2019 Arts Brookfield ‘Summer Plaza’ series in New York City. All finalists receive a Shure MOTIV microphone, and will be strongly considered for future ‘NewSong Presents’ paid performances across the United States.
Bassist and songwriter Bryant leads the Nashville-based indie rock band Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers. The four musicians moved together from Philly and New York to settle in East Nashville where they run their own recording studio, Electric Church Records, and work as the backing band for various local artists. Bryant competed in the NewSong Music Competition with her accompanist, Aaron Hicks, on acoustic guitar. Musical influences range from Fall Out Boy and Green Day to Laura Marling, B. B. King and the Allman Brothers.
“It was truly an honor just to be recognized as a finalist and to have been a part of such a wonderful night of music,” says Bryant of her win. “That show was really a career highlight and you could feel the mutual astonishment of all the finalists throughout the show— such an absolutely gorgeous group of musicians. Winning this competition could not have come at a better time for us; it’s so easy to get lost and discouraged by a career in music, but to be recognized by such a wonderful and authentic organization is incredibly heartwarming and life-affirming. I’m so excited to continue working with NewSong, and I can’t wait to see what this next chapter has in store.”
For the first time in its seventeen year history, the live performance finals of the NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition was held in Asheville, NC, where NewSong Music has been headquartered since 2012. The move marks a new direction for the program, relocating from its longstanding host venue, New York City’s venerable Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
For more information about Mel Bryant, visit the artist’s website, and listen to her band, Mel Brant and the Mercy Makers, on Spotify.
For more information about NewSong Recordings and the NewSong Music Competition, visit newsong-music.com/
For media requests, contact Lea McLellan at leamclellan@gmail.com.
Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers are a Nashville-based indie rock band led by bassist and songwriter Mel Bryant. The four musicians moved together from Philly and New York to settle in East Nashville where they run their own recording studio, Electric Church Records, and work as the backing band for various local artists. Mel will travel to Asheville to compete in the NewSong Music Competition with her accompanist, Aaron Hicks, on acoustic guitar.
We asked Mel some questions about her songwriting process and what it means to be a NewSong finalist. To purchase tickets for the Dec. 15 event at Isis Music Hall, visit our ticketing page.
Congratulations to our finalists in the 17th annual NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition!
The following eight songwriters will perform, network and compete on Saturday, December 15 at Isis Music Hall in Asheville, NC.
For more information on attending this event, please visit our Facebook event page. Buy tickets here.
Thank you to all who submitted their music this year, and we look forward to meeting our finalists next month! In the meantime, we hope you will check out their music below.
We’ve created a playlist for you to enjoy all of this year’s finalists here.
Alex Wong // Nashville, TN
Alice Howe // Chestnut Hill, MA
Carly Taich // Asheville, NC
Kaiti Jones // Cambridge, MA
Liz Frame // Boston, MA
Mel Bryant & The Mercy Makers // Nashville, TN
Suzie Brown // Nashville, TN
Tobias the Owl // Seattle, WA
