Melonie Cannon   -  Biography

Melonie Cannon was born in Jackson, Tenn., but her family moved to Nashville when she was 3. The daughter of record producer Buddy Cannon, she was just 14 when she sang on her first recording session with Dean Dillon. And by the time she'd reached high school, studio dates filled her calendar, including sessions with Sammy Kershaw, John Michael Montgomery, George Jones and Kenny Chesney.

However, rather than pursue her own career in music, she joined the Army. She enlisted at Fort McClellan, Ala., building her weapons and martial arts skills in basic training. She found a kind of focus that had been lost through her wild escapades in high school. But after taking a fall and fracturing her hip during a morning run, she was given a medical discharge.

Back in Nashville, she began visiting the legendary bluegrass venue, the Station Inn. Her new musical circle of friends widened to include some of bluegrass' top musicians. Eventually she brought these friends over to play together, just as her father had done with his colleagues years before. One of these new friends was Ronnie Bowman, the former lead singer for one of bluegrass music's most popular bands, the Lonesome River Band. Bowman offered to produce some sessions with an A-list group of musicians, including Dan Tyminski, Jerry Douglas, Rob McCoury, Barry Bales, Stuart Duncan and Rob Ickes. Everyone performed live. Cannon cut the scratch vocals with the band, and they sounded so good on playback that she didn't bother to do a separate overdub.

The three songs from that first session impressed her father enough to arrange two more studio visits, again with Melonie cutting her vocals live with the band. After just three of these dates, they had the 10 tracks for Melonie's debut album.

Buddy burned these tracks onto a CD and gave it to disc jockey Hairl Hensley to play during his bluegrass show on Nashville radio station WSM-AM. Ricky Skaggs caught one broadcast and asked Buddy for a copy. What he heard posed a challenge: It wasn't quite bluegrass, it wasn't quite commercial country, but it was breathtaking just the same. With his musician hat on, Skaggs had no trouble connecting to Melonie's performance. And as head of Skaggs Family Music, he decided no matter what genre or classification the album -- or Melonie Cannon as an artist -- was going to fall under, it was exactly the kind of music he wanted for his label.

She further established her musical validity to Skaggs at the Ryman Auditorium, where he had invited her to do an opening performance. Aside from the soundman, the place was empty when she and her band showed up. Though she had known the room so well throughout the years, this was her first time on center stage. They were just warming up on their second song when she noticed that someone else was there after all. Skaggs emerged from the back of the building and started yelling and clapping for her.

Skaggs Family Records released the album Melonie Cannon in 2004. She released And the Wheels Turn in 2008 on Rural Rhythm Records.