Liz Melendez touches fans with her earthy blues

By Steve Wildsmith
The Daily Times

May 02. 2008

To some people, such an encounter might seem like an example of oddball behavior that tends to go hand-in-hand with too much beer.

To blues woman Liz Melendez, however, it's a poignant moment out of hundreds she's had over the years, and it happened in downtown Maryville at Brackins Blues Bar. It was a moment of communication between artist and fan, an unspoken exchange of sounds that touch the soul. More...

SOUTHWEST BLUES INTERVIEW WITH 
LIZ MELENDEZ AND KELLY RICHEY
October 2005

10 Questions for Liz Melendez & Kelly Richey
Questions & Photos by Dean Hesse 
dhpix.com

Interstate 75 became the New Blues Highway, when The Kelly Richey Band packed up and headed south from Cincinnati, Ohio and hooked up with The Liz Melendez Band at Darwinís in Marietta, Georgia on May 14.

According to Kelly "As for how this show came in to being...we both heard about each other through friends and press and decided to contact each other...we talked about the idea of a show together being a cool idea and went for it! It should be very fun!"

Kelly and Liz took some time to answer 10 questions about themselves, before they met for the first time at Darwinís. These ladies are not only masters of their craft, they are class acts all the way! More...

BLUES MATTERS MAGAZINE - UK

LIZ MELENDEZ BAND
Sweet Southern Soul
Independent Release
10 tracks. 38.34 mins.
by Ponch

October 2005

Liz's previous CD, Mercy, was reviewed in issue 6, here we have her new one and how she has grown - the sound is fuller and the voice stronger! This is one fine album, if you like the rocky side then here is a lady for you. The title track is catchy and the voice soulful. No More Love has a building intro to power level and lift off! Like warming up your car then taking off on a hard drive. Drink From My Cup is Liz in ballad form, neat organ here and electro acoustic plays neatly, Caza De El Nino is a short instrumental, Justice County lifts to an emotional climax then fades, Do My Thing has a good groove, Battle Cry Rhythm has an interesting start and climactic tribal sense about it, eerie but hooks you in. What a great album!

Liz Melendez - The Latina Santana

by Roberta M. Rosas 
Mija Magazine
December, 2004

While walking in to a venue your ears would lead you to believe that you were attending a Santana concert, but we are entering into a new era when it comes to Latinas and guitars.

Liz Melendez, whom I refer to as the ?Latina Santana? has been around for years. Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Liz began playing guitar at the tender age of 5 with her father (Dan Melendez) teaching her rock & roll and blues standards. ?He really taught me about music, not just how to play the instruments, but how to be a good "musician". Just like her father, Liz listened to a lot of blues & blues rockers of the 70?s as a child.  As the vocal/guitarist area Bonnie Raitt was a big influence to Liz as well as Carlos Santana, Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix for solo guitar players.  Liz was also inspired as a song writer by Paul Simon and Van Morrison. More...

Homecoming for a Curly-headed Headliner 

by Paul Weideman 
The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 6, 2004

Liz Melendez sings the blues sometimes belting it out, sometimes with a delivery soft and husky and plays the electric guitar like she means it. "That fire and attack," she said when mentioning Johnny Winter, one of her influences, "that intensity is what I like to go for."
The Albuquerque native, now in Atlanta, has been soaking herself in the blues since she was a little kid learning rock 'n roll and blues standards on the guitar from her father, Dan Melendez.
She coaxes that "fire and attack" from her Fender Stratocaster, a gift from her dad right after she moved to Atlanta. Around the Southeast she's often called "the female Stevie Ray Vaughan," and she considers the comparison to her main guitar hero an honor. In a recent interview she said her influences also include Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, and her "favorite bands" list adds nonblues acts like Ozzy Osbourne and Paul Simon.
"In the blues world, too much rock can be an unwelcome intrusion, but my band has been known to cut loose on some Sabbath, Zeppelin and Iron Maiden when the mood strikes," she says on her Web site. But the blues is her main squeeze. More...

Sure to give Deborah Coleman some competition in the years ahead is the Liz Melendez Band. The songs and arrangements on Mercy (self-release) mine the same groove; meaty modern blues with tough-yet tender singing and effective soloing. Out of Duluth, Georgia, Melendez is an accomplished guitarist with a nice rhythm touch; she's also got an appealing voice. With those tools and some simple arranging touches, she and her band manage to make straight-on shuffles like "Don't Wanna Leave You Alone" and the Jimmy Reed cop "I Never Do" fresh and interesting. More unusual tracks, like the tricky instrumental "Cisco's Revenge," will keep you on your toes. One to watch.

I have a friend who once told a young Alison Krauss that she was a terrific fiddle player. And then, for some reason, he added, "I mean, for a girl..." Alison walked away in disgust and my friend felt really, really stupid. He meant it as a compliment, but it came out all wrong. The fact is, string-instrument virtuosity is still a primarily male trait; women, by nature or nurture or just plain old male chauvinism, whether in bluegrass or blues, tend to get confined to rhythm playing. Liz Melendez, an Atlanta-based blues singer and guitarist, probably hears things like that all the time. Because while her throaty vocals and sharp, moody songwriting would be enough to distinguish her, she really can play the hell out of an electric guitar. Even more than her few female blues-guitar peers, Melendez combines grinding passion with fiery precision. The most obvious influence on her playing is Stevie Ray Vaughn, and it's a mantle she carries ably (she also carries off some muy convincing Santana-flavored Latin playing). She and her band treated Knoxvillians to a reportedly storming show on New Year's Eve at Sassy Ann's, and now she's back for a double header. From 5-8 p.m., Melendez is the feature of the week at the Knoxville Museum of Art's "Alive After Five" series. Then, from 9 p.m.-1 a.m., she'll be back at Sassy Ann's. Catch her at one or both stops. She rocks and swaggers and moans and sizzles as well as any current blues player-of any gender.