![\"Issue39-melissa-manchester\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Issue39-melissa-manchester.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nMuch has changed in the four decades since \u201cMidnight Blue\u201d made Melissa Manchester a star and the 10 years since her last studio album\u00a0When I Look Down That Road<\/i>. But as she releases her new album, You Gotta Love the Life<\/i>, there are some things that haven\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do have the same passion I did when I was 17,\u201d says Manchester. \u201cThe good news for me personally is that I have grown into myself, and for an artist, that is a very deep truth to finally access. I think it\u2019s reflected in the tone of my voice, the quality of my songs, and the quality of the artists who wanted to participate in the album.\u201d<\/p>\n
Written by Manchester, with the exception of a few covers\u2014\u201cBe My Baby,\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s Face the Music and Dance\u201d and \u201cFrom This Moment On\u201d\u2014the record attracted a host of A-list guest stars including Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Al Jarreau, Dave Koz and Joe Sample. \u201cMany of the musicians are beloved friends I have worked with over the years,\u201d says Manchester, 64. \u201cI didn\u2019t want this to be a duets album\u2014it really isn\u2019t\u2014but I do have some beautiful guests, and I have history with every one of them. So it was so touching when those folks said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manchester\u2019s been busy passing the torch as an adjunct professor at the noted Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in L.A. But the teacher learned a few things from her students that helped launch the new record. \u201cMy students would show up with their CDs, and I would ask them how they got them recorded, thinking they were with an independent label,\u201d says Manchester. \u201cThey taught me about this funding method called Indiegogo. \u2018You should do this,\u2019 they said. So one of my students became my project manager and several others assisted with other things. It was amazing, a new adventure in a new land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the modern crowd-funding platform, Manchester was intent on making the album old-school. \u201cI wanted to go back and reclaim that feeling of making an album with great musicians,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat you\u2019re hearing are real players. We recorded it at a college that had a teaching studio with an engineer who\u2019s a professor. It was incredible\u2014the most exciting experience of my life, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is quite a claim considering Manchester\u2019s notable accomplishments\u2014being discovered by Barry Manilow and singing backup for Bette Midler, all before landing a record deal and breaking out with the Top 10 hit \u201cMidnight Blue\u201d in 1975. Others followed, including \u201cDon\u2019t Cry Out Loud,\u201d \u201cJust You and I\u201d and \u201cYou Should Hear How She Talks About You,\u201d which won her a Grammy in 1982. Manchester also collaborated with Kenny Loggins to pen his 1978 hit duet with Stevie Nicks, \u201cWhenever I Call You Friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople yell at me for not making music anymore,\u201d she laughs. \u201cBut the way music gets out now represents a sort of democratization of music, because anybody can release a song and post something on YouTube. My platform for music is an album. That\u2019s just what I do, and for me, albums are events. It gives the listener a chance to see what the artist has been up to.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it takes a while to put an album together. It doesn\u2019t need to take 10 years, but the truth is this album showed up exactly when it needed to show up. The journey we\u2019ve been on to get this done affirms the fact that there are no accidents. It\u2019s the culmination of all of the millions of steps that got me to this point. The timing was perfect. So now it unfolds, and we\u2019ll see how the world welcomes the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MELISSA MANCHESTER Thanks to a 21st century team approach, she brings her smoky vocals to a new set Much has changed in the four decades since \u201cMidnight Blue\u201d made Melissa Manchester a star and the 10 years since her last studio album\u00a0When I Look Down That Road. But as she releases her new album, You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[7680,7623],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14781,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14779\/revisions\/14781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}