Melissa Crabtree

While performing across the rocky mountains and on the west coast, Crabtree has played many notable festivals,including the high sierra music festival, moab folk festival, oregon country fair and the taos solar music festival. She has also received songwriting awards at the telluride bluegrass festival,the rocky mountain folks festival, the tucson folk festival, and the kerrville folk festival. In 2002, she was among the 10 finalists in the songwriter showcase at both the rocky mountain folksfest in lyons, colorado and the tucson folk festival. in 2004 she was among the top five finalists in the telluride bluegrass festival's troubador contest. in 2006 her song "message from a soldier", got the attention of noel(paul)stookey (from peter, paul and mary)who invited her to perform at the kerrville folk festival where she was a finalist in the kerrville music to life public domain foundation songwriting contest.she has shared the stage with many leading folk performers including Greg Brown, Ani Difranco, Michelle Shocked, John Prine, Patty Larkin, Catie Curtis, Dar Williams, david wilcox, Kris Delmhorst and Tony Furtado.
Melissa Crabtree has been living her life as an outdoor guide and musician. with the wilderness as both her home and her muse, her songs transport the listener to a world of mammoth cliffs and rushing rivers. Playing live, Crabtree delivers heartfelt stories with her distinctively husky alto and pleasingly twangy guitar-style. She loves playing on the back porch, and brings the same easy-going, down-home style to the stage. She also performs live on the river, while guiding trips on the grand canyon and on many other rivers in the western united states.
Crabtree released her first cd while touring across the country in a vegetable-oil powered van, to protest our nation's petroleum addiction. She also produced a compilation cd of songs and spoken word about alternatives to fossil fuels which includes Julia Butterfly Hill, Tony Furtado and Julie Wolf (Ani Difranco band).

Crabtree's debut album "off the beaten path" was released in the spring of 2002. it was produced with cookie marenco and wally ingram, and features tony furtado, darol anger and a host of other fine musicians. The title track was inspired by southwestern fringe living, as experienced by crabtree and her friends. in the first lines of the song, we are introduced to a "dusty, dusty devil, spinnin. lots of sand" who "kicks up her heels and flies across the land" and by the end, we recognize that the song is an autobiographical sketch of the guitar-toting, river-running artist herself: "she's swirlin in an eddy, getting caught in the cane, she gets stuck in that eddy, and swirls around again, she spends her days out on a river raft, she walks off the beaten path."

Quotes:
"A road-wise folkie with a bluesy soul reminiscent of early Michelle Shocked, Melissa Crabtree is an original storyteller and performer not to be missed." - Catie Curtis
"This is one bad ass who knows how to weave a soulful tune". - Tony Furtado

"I'm glad she's on the Planet." - Patty Larkin

Melissa's music is like the white water she guides on; "A Bluesy wild ride down a river of emotions or environmental issues, dealing with them honest and in ernest, not letting them get the best of her, as she outrides them and paddles down the river... her performance is strong and free...just like her rivers." - Caroline Aiken