Angelo M.

The bandshell took the form of a back porch with guitar pickers and blues shouters. One of the highlights was Angelo M ...
M. worked in a Pennsylvania steel mill before quitting in 2003 to do music full time. His song ``Thirty Years, with its hushed, quiet desperation, explained why he quit. He worked 30 years in the mill -- ``that's half my life, M repeated like a mantra. Thanks to his fluid, ornate guitar picking and the recent purchase of two songs by the PBS series ``Road Trip Nation, the only steel he will be handling now will be the slide on his strings. by Mark Wedel for Kalamazoo Gazette - Special Kalamazoo Festival Review - Kalamazoo Gazette - Special Kalamazoo Festival Review by Mark Wedel

I knew Angelo was good from the CD, but Live he floored us.
What a tremendous talent! HomeGrownRadioNJ.com -Kath Cameron - HomeGrownRadioNJ.com

The saying about the silver lining in the cloud could describe Angelo M’s pathway to his music career to a “T”. He’s a singer and song writer who performs on guitar,mandolin, Dobro and harp. He’s also a stellar example of one who makes lemonade from lemons and creates a thriving second career later in life.Today he’s a respected Lancaster-area blues musician with a loyal local and national following and has found his niche in this second career. The transition from steelworker to musician wasn’t an easy one, but starting another career later in life is something many people can identify with. They also identify with his folksy songs that feature a slice of Americana... - by Rochelle A. Shenk, Lancaster Intelligencer / New Era - Boomers Magazine (click link above to read full article) - Lancaster Intelligencer / New Era - Boomers

Like molten steel in an arc furnace of the PA steel mill where Angelo M. once worked, his new release, From Steel to Strings is white hot and exploding on the scene. After only being released to radio a week ago, Angelo is getting a great response with four songs being charted in the Blues Charts and 12 songs being charted in the Americana radio charts." by Dan Herr - Music News Nashville (click link for full article) - Music News Nashville - Nashville, TN

His success is long-awaited, and his music is unapologetically brilliant.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of doing what they love, getting a paycheck for pursuing their passions, or having the freedom to follow their art, Angelo M.’s(Melasecca) music will strike a chord. With accessible lyrics and music that’s been fine-tuned to perfection, Angelo’s blue-collar experiences transform his songs into authentic accounts of who he is as a hardworking American man and musician. by Nicole Patterson - Fine Living Lancaster Magazine (click link go to page 132 for full article) - Fine Living Lancaster Magazine - Lancaster, PA

This record is a triumph in the Roots, Blues, and Americana category s.
...Angelo M has exploded on the Americana scene. Laid back like Croce or Taylor, down in the blues with Sumlin and Clapton, and tickling the strings a’la Bruce Cockburn... A little bit of Prine and Goodman come out to play (not literally) in Stop Blamin’ Me and Thirty Years. From cracking jokes and making light to getting serious and deep, Angelo M’s songwriting is top notch. And his musicianship? Ah, well, if fingers normally had wings, I might understand, but they don’t and, well… wow! He plays slow and sweet, digs in and makes a guitar hurt, and dances with the fleetness of a hummingbird on songs like Running Late. -Bret Campbell, Middle Tennessee Music (click link for full article).

- Today's Country - Knoxville, TN

Angelo M. is the real deal. Many performers can sing the blues, but this former steel worker has lived it. When the Pennsylvania steel mill where he had worked for nearly 30 years was bought out and then put into bankruptcy, Angelo not only lost his livelihood but his pension, as well. Fortunately, he had other talents, which will be on display in concert at Fiddlers Crossing, Friday, Sept. 13, at 7 p.m. (Click link for full article by Debra Hand - Tehachapi News, CA) - Tehachapi News, CA

From Steel to Strings, is Americana Folk and Blues at its finest... With brilliant guitar- playing skills that reminds me of Eric Clapton, Angelo M’s music is indelible and his soulful vocals will delight your ears... ~ Carlos Sanchez / True Music (click link for full article Tolucan Times, CA)

- The Tolucan Times - Southern California

Last time Fly chatted with singer/songwriter Angelo Melasecca in late 1995, he was busy frequenting the region as one half of the acoustic duo Angelo & Paisley. Shortly following, Rodger Paisley respectfully bid his songwriting partner and the music world tender adieu to tend to other obligations. And since then, Melasecca’s story has become so potent with irony and metaphor you’d think it wasn’t true …

Rewinding a bit: For three decades, Melasecca sweated out a blue-collar life only Springsteen could appreciate. “I was working for a steel company with the aspect of the 30-year pension that was so luring,” the raspy-voiced singer recalls. “That was why I stayed there.”

But just last year, a sinister twist of fate reduced Melasecca’s decades of resolute manual labor to a mere crapshoot. “I got 29-and-a-half years in,” he laments, “and the company went bankrupt – the government seized the pension fund, and all that was taken away, taken off the table.

“I had a choice,” he shrugs. “I could stay, I didn’t have to leave … I either had to start all over again or do what I wanted to do.”

For the moment his stars had misaligned. But with a sudden clairvoyance, Melasecca resolved the obvious: “I wanted to do other stuff and I wanted to play music … so I left.” And his stars resultantly followed suit, snapping back together in elastic procession.

So in mid 2003, Melasecca hung up his hard hat for good and padded away from the labor industry. He didn’t go far, though. The 40-plus-year music hobbyist decided to stick with the medium he knew best: steel.

Sliding up and down the neck of a seasoned steel guitar has long paralleled his livelihood, but he never would have considered it a career substitute. Given the circumstances, though, why not? Some could call it a mid-life crisis. Maybe Melasecca would too. But when the reset button is pushed that far into the game of life, what better to do than follow one’s heart?

So far, it seems like a good decision. Approaching his 50th birthday, Melasecca’s at the top of his musical game and gaining momentum.

“I’ve had a fantastic year and a half or so,” Melasecca gushes. “It’s just been great.”

Drawing on influences from the likes of Chet Atkins, Ry Cooder and Leo Kottke, Melasecca blends his slide-style acoustic playing with timeless pastorals for the common man, wielding a rustic, organic, Appalachian-esque brand of finger-picked Americana. “I learned to play mandolin, I play dobro – I just got sucked into that world so much,” he says. “I’m trying to get some of that electric stuff out of my system … but I still keep going back to that acoustic thing.”

It need not be said that 30 years of physical labor has its way of seeping into Melasecca’s music. But the gorgeous irony of it all is that the job that once hindered him from pursuing music full-time has now become his muse, a bottomless reservoir of lyrical metaphors.

The past year has been abuzz with activity. In addition to self-producing and self-releasing his first solo album, Far From Home (which includes a song featured on the soundtrack for “Unclaym’d Heart,” a claymation film in 2004’s 48 Hour Film Project), Melasecca toured the West Coast and appeared on the Strand-Capitol stage in “Showtime at the Apollo on Tour,” which impressed the producers of the televised version so much that they offered him a slot on a 2005 episode to be broadcasted from New York City’s legendary Apollo Theater.

“They liked what I did very much,” he beams. “I was sort of blown away by that … I mean, how many people get to say they played the Apollo Theater?” Certainly not many 50-year-old retired steel workers, that’s for sure.

Melasecca will be pushing just as hard in the upcoming year, booking more tours and pickin’ away his characteristic steel riffs.

For booking, information and music downloads, set the browser to Melasecca’s website at www.angelom.com.



Fly Magazine

- Fly Magazine

"His performances have evolved into multitasking enterprises; he breathes hurricanes through a harmonica, plays the devil out of his guitar, kicks a tambourine propped against his chair and sings when it's convenient." ...by Mike Caggeso - York Daily Record - York Daily Record - Mike Caggeso

****4 STARS " Very good guitar playing, beautiful voice and great songs! I really enjoy listening to this CD. Angelo M.'s guitar playing is very good and he also has a beautiful voice. My favorite cut is "Thirty Years". Well, he's got a hit in this one. I am sure that my listeners will love that song. It has great radio appeal!" Przemek Draheim, Blues & Gospel Radio Host(EU) - Przemek Draheim, Blues & Gospel Radio Host(EU)

"Whether it's his 'delta' slide guitar workings or his 'steel worker' 'blue collar' blues, the color or where you got 'em doesn't matter....Angelo M. plays the blues from the heart." "Armed with his dobro, Angelo M. levels the playing field!" WNTI 91.9 FM - Mickey Spillane - WNTI 91.9 FM - Mickey Spillane

"Thirty Years is actually one of my favorite songs on the Roadtrip Nation soundtrack this year. Roadtrip Nation is not just a TV Show, but a movement with an entire life-on-the-road, forward thinking, grassroots culture behind it... The reason Angelo M.'s song Thirty Years is not only in our PBS series, but in the RTN soundtrack as well is because of how well it fits into that culture. When I hear a song that I know I could listen to cruisin' down I-40 in a big green rv, I know it's the right song for RTN. " Blake Hodges, Music Supervisor for PBS TV Series Roadtrip Nation - Blake Hodges, Music Supervisor for PBS TV Series Roadtrip Nation

"A gifted musician with incredible dexterity on finger-picking guitar, slide Dobro and mandolin... After his POWERFUL PERFORMANCE, many people were asking where and when they could see him again." Blues News - Kalamazoo Festival Review by Tim Richards - Blues News - Kalamazoo, MI

The saying about the silver lining in the cloud could describe Angelo M’s pathway to his music career to a “T”. He’s a singer and songwriter
who performs on guitar, mandolin, Dobro and harp. He’s also a stellar example of one who make lemonade from lemons and creates athriving second career later in life.
Today he’s a respected Lancaster area blues musician with a loyal local and national following and has found his niche in this second career. The transition from steelworker to musician wasn’t an easy one, but starting another career later in life is something many people can identify with. They also identify with his folksy songs that feature a slice of Americana. Angelo M (his surname is Melasecca) is originally from the Philadelphia area. The youngest of four boys, all of his brothers were teenagers before he could walk, so he grew up listening to the music playing on their radios. Although no one else in his family really played an instrument when he was growing up, Angelo’s 94-year-old dad is a self-taught harmonica player, who learned the instrument later in his life. “Dad always wanted someone to play the organ,” he recalls. However, Angelo took an interest in the guitar when he was
eight-years old. He worked in a steel mill for nearly 30 years. With his pension five months away, he dreamed of a retirement that included traveling and taking up longforgotten hobbies that included playing the guitar. The company’s sudden
bankruptcy meant not only the loss of his job, but also the pension. The company was bought out, and since it had been a union shop, he and a number of his co-workers could keep their jobs because of the contract, but they would
have to start over with their pensions. “I was 48 at that time. I liked my job and music was my hobby — I played at some local clubs. I really looked long and
hard at my life and what I wanted from life. I really didn’t want to start over again. Many of my co-workers didn’t have a choice, but I had the option of music and it seemed to be the right time to do something,” he explains. So he shifted gears and fell back on his music. He not only stepped up his performance schedule, but he also began writing. “With what I had been through, what else could I do but write a blues song” he says with a smile. His wife, Jody Murphy, is also his manager. The two share a love of music. They met in the 90s at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. She encouraged him to expand into writing songs as well as performing. His guitar influences come from legends such as Ry Cooder, Chet Atkins, Duane Allman and Leo Kottke. Angelo started playing music festivals and received a standing ovation at Johnstown FolkFest. He was deemed “One of the Highlights” at the Kalamazoo (MI) Blues Festival and was selected from more than five hundred artists to perform at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (NY) Emerging Artist Showcase. “Festivals are awesome. They book so many entertainers — there’s music everywhere and there’s so much energy. It’s a great place to get a lot of experience as a performer and to have fun doing it,” he says. And he says that Lancaster is an amazing place for music — there are lots of clubs and bars that offer live music. He credits the Lancaster Dispensing Company (known as DipCo by those in the music scene) with helping boost his career, and he returns there to perform periodically. “I love playing small, intimate places — you really get the feel of the audience,” he says.
He’s performed several times on National Public Radio’s “River City Folk”. Angelo M.’s music is featured in the PBS Television series “RoadTrip Nation”, is slated for an indie film soundtrack and, garnered songwriting honors in the prestigious “Mountain Stage” NewSong contest. His song, “Every Kind of Blues,” was selected from thousands as a finalist in Billboard’s 17th World Song Contest and received a Gold/First Place in Blues in the 27th Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.
His two successful self-released albums— “Far From Home” released in 2005,
and “Steel Work”, released in 2009 —brought him to the attention of folks in
Nashville’s music scene, and he’s signed a contract with Music City Veterans.
“From Steel to Strings”, his first album with Creative and Dreams Music Network, was released earlier this year, and Angelo says that during the next two years he will come up with music for two new albums. Creative and Dreams Music Network
is a team of music industry veterans that focuses on emerging talent. Angelo is excited about working with this team and continuing to develop his music. Not
only has music provided some financial stability and allowed him to explore his
creative side, it has also helped both himand Jody realize the dream of traveling.
He’s played venues in Portland, OR; Virginia Beach; Atlanta; Kalamazoo, MI; Dewey Beach; and Beaufort, NC. His European debut was in Limerick, Ireland. - BOOMers Magazine - Lancaster Newspapers Inc.

Like molten steel in an arc furnace of the PA steel mill where Angelo M. once worked, his new release, From Steel to Strings is white hot and exploding on the scene.

After only being released to radio a week ago, Angelo is getting a great response with four songs being charted in the Blues Charts and 12 songs being charted in the Americana radio charts.

Released by Creative and Dreams Music Network the album contains 16 all original tracks by this steelworker turned award winning Americana songwriter, and master finger style and slide guitarist.

Angelo M.’s talent, forged over decades of dedicated study, practice and behind the scene performances while he punched a time clock in a Pennsylvania steel mill, is exploding on the Americana scene.

He’s a seasoned vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who plays 6 and12 string guitar, Dobro, mandolin, bass, harp and even a little piano. Though there are no piano tracks on this release; From Steel to Strings is a guitar driven eclectic, acoustic blend of rootsy Americana, Folk & Blues.

Angelo M.’s roots enriched sound and universally appealing songs of love, loss and change, drawn from a life well-worn has led him to winning numerous songwriting awards: including honors in the prestigious “Mountain Stage” New Song Contest, Billboard’s World Song Contest and the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest. Angelo M.’s music has also been featured in the PBS TV Series Roadtrip nation and just received placement in an indie film.

Veritable, real, true – however you say it, there’s an authenticity that’s palatable in Angelo M.’s singing, playing and songwriting that draws you in and a relatability that connects you emotionally with what’s being said. So, whether it’s his intricate finger stylings on the acoustic guitar, some searing slide on his Dobro or the lonesome strains of his mandolin, you’ll be sure to enjoy this gifted artist who’s just beginning to hit his stride.

Angelo M.’s Debut Label Release From Steel to Strings is making its way to radio stations across the US and beyond. So stay tuned to hear it on your favorite station. The disc is immediately available from Creative and Dreams Music Network at Creativeanddreamsmusicnetwork.com or radio downloads available at AirPlayDirect. - Music News Nashville

"Angelo M. made our jaws drop when he sat down and blistered the frets." "...After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked him, "Does Jorma Kaukonen know about you?"

Richard Cuccaro - Acoustic Live FEATURE ARTICLE BELOW

Angelo M
"Plan B" is Working
by Richard Cuccaro

Coatsville, PA
Local Steelworker Tells Bankrupt
Steel Mill "Take This Job And Shove It." Has His Own Stimulus Package
---------------------------------------------
The above fake news subhead is a brief digression. We ask that the reader (figuratively) return with us to our hotel room at the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York, the new home of the Northeast Folk Alliance Conference, mid-November, last fall. It was 1:30am, and we were in the middle of our Friday night/Saturday morning guerilla showcases. Eight acts down, six more to go, a total of fourteen 15-minute sets, then another fourteen the next night. Meanwhile, all around us, perhaps 30 or more other showcase sets in other rooms were taking place, all vying for the attention of presenters, venue operators and media people. After the eighth set, the room cleared out and no one new came in to see our next performer. This one was someone new to me, and had come highly recommended by slide wizard Pat Wictor, so I was curious. I was also feeling awkward with no support showing from anyone. Apparently, most of the talent-seekers were as ignorant as I was. A tall, trim gray-haired man stepped into the room and introduced himself: "Angelo M." Uh-oh… that's right… no last name. I had previously wondered: Prince wannabe? The artist "formerly known as…?" Angelo pulled his guitar from its case and sat down to play. As soon as the first notes cascaded from his instrument, I felt a rush of mixed emotions, both awe and further embarrassment. Nobody was here to see perhaps the best NERFA blues guitar discovery this side of Beaucoup Blue (I can't wait to see that double bill. Add Toby Walker and make it a triple so we can all die happy). Elements of Doc Watson, Chet Atkins and Gary Davis were flying at me like bullets. He started singing "Far From Home," his voice a pleasing burr. Picture a younger Clint Eastwood able to carry a tune. (I like to imagine a young git picker getting up in his face and Angelo replying, "Do you feel lucky today? Well, do ya, punk?" … actually, he's much too laid-back for that.) After his fifteen minute set --a mind-altering mix of boogie woogie and twang -- I asked him, "Does Jorma Kaukonen know about you?" I figured he'd make a perfect teacher/disciple for Jorma's instructional Fur Peace Ranch. I found out that Angelo's last name was Melasecca and that he had walked away from a steel mill jobafter 30 years to pursue his musical dream. At 50-plus years old, he was a rookie on the folk circuit. Case closed. This was definitely a story worth telling. His first album, a beauty, briefly reviewed in our December issue, is called Far From Home. I began telling everyone that I could buttonhole at the conference about this "new" phenomenon. Apparently others had the same idea. As word spread, his appearance in the Tricentric showcase was packed. We took home his CD and a demo disc with some live radio tracks. One live track, "All That Runnin" recreated the showcase experience. The DJ's ecstatic response to Angelo's fingers flying over the frets mirrored our own. We waited until our April issue to coincide with the release of some new music from Angelo. His second album Steelwork is releasing in June and on April 7th a few select tracks will be available to purchase as mp3 files .We've gotten to hear a half-dozen tracks, and they're brilliant.

Beginnings
Angelo was born in 1955 and grew up in Philadelphia, the youngest child in his family. There was a 12-year gap between him and the next youngest brother. Both parents loved music. His father played the harmonica, and at 90 years old, still does. Although none of Angelo's brothers got the impulse to play an instrument, they did, however, listen to a lot of music. Early on, he got an earful -- pop music from radio and his parents record collection -- and his brothers' inclination for 50's rock and roll. When he was around 6 years old, Angelo began asking for a guitar. He had fallen in love with the sound of Duane Eddy and would mimic the twangy sound with his voice. It took his parents a while to get the idea that the "naow, naow" sounds were the root of something serious. They bought him his first guitar when he was 8 years old. Although he wanted an electric, they bought him an acoustic. He acknowledges that it was the right move. There was lots to learn before tackling rock 'n roll. His first teacher gave lessons in students' homes. He came to the house for about two years and, using the Mel Bay method, taught a lot of theory, while pointing out where Angelo should place his fingers. There were no demonstrations, though. The teacher was actually a sax player! In the long run, it didn't - Acoutic Live in NYC & Beyond - Richard Cuccaro

"Brilliant Guitarist" "Excellent Voice"
"Lost, produces goose bumps with a brilliant slide and acoustic guitar,
this song all alone justifies the purchase of the album." - Rootstime Magazine by Francois Braeken (EU)