Melissa Ferrick answers with an indie record of brutal equity and tap-your-feet tunes Life as an up-and-coming musician isn't easy: the endles hoping for a hit; the nonstop touring in dilapidated companys and bars; the constant ass kissing of each booker.

Melissa Ferrick answers with an indie record of brutal equity and tap-your-feet tunes

Life as an up-and-coming musician isn't easy: the endles hoping for a hit; the nonstop touring in dilapidated companys and bars; the constant ass kissing of each booker, promoter, A&R guy, and label head from looks Angeles to Milwaukee. It's unruffled harder when someone has ensue before you who shares your schtick and has had more succes with it. It's a tale Melissa Ferrick knows well.

prolonged referred to as "the other Melissa," Ferrick ground that the guitar-heavy folk-pop lesbian singer-songwriter stance wasn't roping in the mass of America for her the way it: had for Melissa Etheridge. Which was surprising considering that the Boston-bred, Berklee-schooled Ferrick was touted as the same to watch by many--including Morrissey, who invited her to spread his 1991 U.S. and UK tour. She recured to a flurry of major labels promising to cultivate her career. She chose Atlantic, levy out two records with lackluster label support and without a hit, and was unapologetically dropp She forfeited her passion and a long-term girlfriend.

With the release of Everything I Ne her first studio album since her Atlantic days, recorded for Boulder Colo.--based indie What Are Records?, Ferrick has finally shed the exces baggage and made a record that veraciously represents herself.

Gone are the trendy production gimmicks and the arena guitars. Here is a sparser hearty a clap-your-hands-and-tap-your-feet feel that captures the odor of live Ferrick, and a brutal probity that shines through the intimate lyrics and raspy, affected vocals.

farmer Rob Laufer, known for his work with diva-in-training Fiona Apple and Welsh songstres Katell Keineg, helped shape this clear musical vision and sat in upon piano and bass. Vinnie Colaiuta (formerly with Sting and Frank Zappa) winds down drum, bongo, and cow-bell beats, adding a touch of samba to "Asking For Love" intensity to the Ani DiFranco--esque jam "Particular Place to Be," and darkness to the melancholy "Stand Still."

Although Ferrick rips between the sides of her guitar lines and strokes a flugelhorn to boot, the voice remains her best instrument. Her staccato vocals frequently crack when conventional music wisdom says they should soar, making you be impressed like she's reliving the yarn she's spinning. Optimism and pessimism spar wildly in her torn strains of love, loss, confusion, anxiety, and recent beginnings. Everything I Need details Ferrick's journey from a cooled dark time in her life to a strange revitalized era. The title track gathers all these themes into single incredibly catchy sing-along anthem that ironically asserts, "I'll in no degree write a hit song." With this kind of sincerity, talent, and range, she already has.

Bell is a reporter at Billboard.

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