Watstock is a Musical Fundraiser for Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Research
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It was in Morocco, that Melissa’s musical journey truly began. Before
leaving for Europe, Melissa had followed her intimidating intuition, and sent a copy of a live recording to Jacob Tell, a web designer from
Oniracom, the company who oversees popular singer/songwriter Jack Johnson’s website. While in the Sahara desert, Melissa received an email from Jacob overwhelmed by her music, beckoning her back home to the Jack Johnson show in Toronto, Canada. Following her dream—she went. Within 48 hours of leaving the Sahara, she was playing for Jack in person—a dream come true. It was that night that Melissa met D’ari Pouyat and Dave Tolley of Canadian band Nine Mile, who Melissa gave a copy of her live recording to. Ecstatic at the honesty and purity of Melissa’s music, D’ari offered to help the new artist in whatever way he could, and after recording the majority of her massive repetoire of songs simply on his laptop, she was invited to open up for them on their first stop on tour with Xavier Rudd—folk’s newest icon, the multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter phenom from Australia. After hearing her songs, Melissa was invited to join Xavier’s 36 date tour accross the Northeastern United States, playing whenever the venue permitted it, and observing the workings of the music industry.
