Check Out Melanie Lenau’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Lenau.

Hi Melanie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thanks so much for featuring me as a music artist and an entrepreneur in the Nashville community. I’m originally from Michigan, a world traveler, and have lived overseas in South Korea, traveling all over Southeast Asia, India, Indonesia, and Europe. Moving back to the states from abroad, I lived in Austin, Texas, and moved here to Nashville. I’ve been here for just over two years now and though in a larger sense, I feel like the world is my home, Nashville is a very special place for me as a singer-songwriter and I feel like I have found my ‘home base’. In one sense I have been pursuing my music for five years. On another, I have been doing music my whole life. Growing up, I learned how to sing just by being in church. I took piano lessons, and violin lessons taught myself to play the guitar, and was a music major in college. 2017 was a pivotal year for me: I broke off a long-term relationship; I lost my grandmother, my father, and a good friend.

Toward the end of that year, I made a promise to myself that I would live my dreams and play music. Since then, I’ve played my solo project with a trio and full band for a house concert, the Austin rodeo, corporate events, wineries, distilleries, resorts, and hotels throughout the hill country of Austin and throughout downtown Nashville. I recorded my first two singles and then moved to Nashville in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. It was a very difficult time for a move but I was still able to release my music and I’ve recorded and released four more singles since then. You can find me out and about playing several venues in the downtown area and playing singer-songwriter rounds all over town.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Finding my voice both figuratively and literally has been a big part of my journey. My dream had always been to sing and play music but like a lot of folks, I somehow internalized a lot of negativity around the experience of playing music and didn’t believe that my dreams were possible. Because I believed I couldn’t do it, I had myself convinced that I really just didn’t know what I wanted to do.

So, I tried a lot of other professions. I wore a lot of hats for a while and was the jack of all trades. Unearthing my dream took a lot of self-discovery including being a violinist in a bluegrass band in Korea and then in a duo playing Spanish cinematic Americana music a few years later. It was the latter that brought me on a couple of tours to Europe and got me singing vocal harmonies, which gave me some confidence and made me yearn to really sing as well as do my own project.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Well, I’m a country singer-songwriter. I play many of my own songs but also a mix of old country tunes from artists like Dolly Parton, EmmyLou Harris, Linda Rondstadt, and Patsy Cline. I play the Americana Fleetwood Mac as well. Lately, I’ve gotten into playing country hits from the 90s as well as some hits from the last few years. I just really love finding and playing someone’s favorite song.

You can literally see it in their eyes and sometimes in their feet, like when they get out of their chairs and start to dance. I feel proud of what it took to get here to Nashville, singing and playing my own songs. I know I bring experience to my writing and I’m focused on building a body of work that I’m proud of and inspires.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I loved singing with my friend who had a karaoke machine in her house. I loved people and wanted to make friends with the whole neighborhood of girls my age.

I loved riding my bike, and I had a business, where I would sell cookies around my neighborhood. I liked inventing things: I made a cardboard castle with a working drawbridge and a mini magnetized racetrack that worked with the bicycle wheel. I loved writing stories and poems, would draw pictures all the time, and loved reading stories, particularly biographies.

Contact Info:

• Website: melanielenau.com 

Image Credits
5 shots by Brianna Fish and Nick Raymond