Melanie Fiona represents the next chapter in a storied history of female soul singers to possess the passion, power and grace to lift the spirits of the musical hopeful with the simple sound of her voice. But God given ability aside, Melanie is most importantly, an avid music maniac! Dusty Fingers, the newest series in the Yours Truly canon, is set inside San Francisco’s best record stores, and is meant to demonstrate that all artists are first and foremost, fans.
Melanie and I met at Rooky Ricardo’s Records, home of the finest selection of 60’s and 70’s Northern Soul, Disco, Blues and Oldies 45’s and LP’s. Once inside, the conversation quickly turned to Sam Cooke, an early idol of Melanie’s and a singer she recently honored with a cover of Cupid from her latest collaborative mixtape with ?uestlove. In this clip she did not draw back her bow but she did burst into some bars from You Send Me right in the middle of the store!
Then she spotted Off the Wall on the shelf. This was shot months before Michael’s untimely passing but once MJ came up, Melanie began to dance and beaming about him “Anything from Off the Wall comes on and I can Moonwalk…when you hear that OOOOOO, anywhere you are, when a Mike record comes on the tone is set.”
Part 1 of our 2 part Dusty Fingers series with Melanie concludes with a heated discussion of her live performance, something I very much look forward to seeing very soon.
PREVIOUS: WQST Presents: Melanie Fiona Meets The Illadelphonics (A Live Remix Jam Session of The Bridge)
