Melissa Ferrick: Performance Perspectives Clinic

Melissa Ferrick can blow her own horn quite well—flugelhorn, to be exact—if she chooses. Instead, she expresses her creative spirit with an acoustic guitar. Since the early 1990s, the accomplished singer/songwriter has compiled a string of sonically strong, lyrically rich studio albums. Her widely praised 2006 album, In the Eyes of Strangers, fulfilled the rock 'n' roll essence from which Ferrick has long drawn inspiration. Just when it seemed she would plunge into a more layered, instrumentally diverse driven sound, she produced perhaps her most intimate, stripped-down album to date. Goodbye Youth—her ninth studio effort—comes out September 16 on Ferrick's own Right On Records.

Goodbye Youth was laid down in a single day during her near-constant tour schedule. The album, a departure from the music she wrote and arranged with a team of accomplished musicians on her previous CD, retains Ferrick's trademark: an endearing, emotionally honest first-person narrative style approach driven by her dynamic acoustic sound. The decision to dial back the sound on Goodbye Youth didn't leave the thrust in the dust. In a stroke of musical mastery, Ferrick channeled her rock spirit into a fresh acoustic idiom, navigated with tactical beauty with the assistance of engineer Scott Norton (Son Volt, Jay Farrar).

A veteran of the acoustic tradition, Ferrick's musical journey actually started in a different vein—as a brass musician. After studying flugelhorn at Berklee, Ferrick set out on her own, signing with Atlantic Records. Her debut album, 1993's Massive Blur, garnered glowing reviews, as did her sophomore effort, released a year later. A last-second addition as a support act for Morrissey in 1994 not only resulted in more dates with the popular British artist, it also laid the foundation for Ferrick's reputation as a dynamic live act. Ferrick ranks among an elite group of female guitarists who'll brave the stage alone, and leave it with the house crying for more.