Melissa Carper - Borned In Ya

Melissa Carper has announced her next album, ‘Borned In Ya’, which is due out 19th July 2024 via Mae Music/Thirty Tigers, ‘Borned In Ya’ is a phrase Carper heard used by Ralph Stanley to describe a musician’s ability to play old time music.  She immediately jotted it down on a piece of paper. “I knew I had to write that song,” she recalls. “I was turning over in my mind what it means to have something ‘borned in ya’,” she says. “The song evolved as I was writing it to be more about having your soul ‘borned in ya,’ and the more life experience you have, you hopefully grow to embody the highest version of yourself that you can be.”

Carper, born into a music-loving family, was raised on roots music, and ‘Borned In Ya’ showcases her long-standing influences as well as her artistic growth and sense of adventure. It features a cast of top-flight musicians such as bassist Dennis Crouch (who also co-produces), guitar and pedal steel player Chris Scruggs, pianist Jeff Taylor, fiddler Billy Contreras and multi-instrumentalist Rory Hoffman.  This is Carper’s first album featuring horns; Doug Corcoran, from JD McPherson’s band, plays trumpet and saxophone.  Carper wrote the majority of the album’s 12 songs; three were  co-writes with Brennen Leigh.

Carper hopes it will resonate with fans of her earlier work while establishing an artistic step forward. “People call me retro or throwback, and I’ve been OK with that,” she says. “But, I feel like I’m still creating something new. I’m taking styles and blending things in a way that maybe hasn’t been done before. And, in the process, I’m evolving in my own way.”

She has released its first single and video, ‘Lucky Five’, a light-hearted track about past relationships. “I have much personal experience to draw from in writing a song that speaks of learning from past relationships, growing as a human, and being able to know how to love better as you grow,” says Carper. “I believe that any difficult experience that presents itself is just an opportunity to learn and face something in ourselves that needs to be confronted, in order to learn.”   The video, set in the Austin Roller Rink, was filmed and directed by Brian Schwarz of Painted House Productions.