Songwriter Melissa Gilstrap

Tenth member Melissa Gilstrap has written lyrics to a number one song! “One Falling Tree,” her bossa nova collaboration with legendary jazz tenor saxophonist/composer Larry McKenna, was voted #1 listener favorite for 4 weeks on the Hot 11 Countdown of WRTI 90.1 FM, and remained in the countdown for 18 straight weeks! It was also the #2 song for the whole year of 2013 in WRTI's list of Top 100 Favorite New Releases! You can hear a sample here.

“One Falling Tree” is one of four new songs composed by Larry with lyrics by Melissa, premiered by vocalist Joanna Pascale on Larry’s new critically-acclaimed CD, “Larry McKenna From All Sides.” Melissa and Larry co-produced the CD, which is supported in part by a grant from the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers Forum. Melissa is also an artist and designed the CD package which includes Larry’s liner notes plus her lyrics, photography and drawings of Larry in performance. The 8-panel digipak CD is available on CDBaby.com or from Melissa for $15 by email, and downloads are available on CDBaby.com, Amazon and iTunes, all with listening samples.

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