Melissa Javors

Since Melissa Javors won the Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk Competition in 1981, she has been winning the hearts and minds of music fans and the respect and admiration of her peers.
Javors was raised in a New Jersey family with diverse musical tastes. Her father played jazz drums, a grandmother was a classical pianist, and her grandfather was a fan of
Broadway musicals. Her cousin, Pat Street, introduced her to folk music in her early teens. "Pat was writing songs with Erik Darling in Greenwich Village. She gave me her old ukelele and I loved being able to accompany myself singing. With her encouragement I was the first one on my block to become a folksinger." says Javors.
She received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Ohio Wesleyan University where she became involved in the political movements of the day, emulated Joni Mitchell and Carole King, embroidered her jeans and engaged in other counter cultural pursuits. Javors married and had two daughters while living in boulder, Colorado. She spent the next two decades in San Antonio, Texas before moving to Nashville in 1988.
Both the Kerrville Folk Festival and the Austin music scene lent Javors inspiration and support in developing her songwriting skills. Gary P. Nunn produced her first LP "Just Beginning" for his Guacamole Records in 1983. A British label, Making Waves in 1993 released her CD "The Real Woman in Me". Javors toured extensively in Texas and has been a frequent main stage performer at Kerrville, and has impressed ausiences in Alaska, England, and Scotland. Playing keyboard and mountain dulcimer she has shared stages with Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Shake R,ussell, Dana Cooper, Crow Johnson, Emily Kaitz, Chuck Pyle, and other Kerrville artists. Javors placed first in the Austin Music Umbrella's annual competition in 1990 and was voted Songwriter of the Year in San Antonio in 1993. At the 30th Anniversary Kerrville Folk Festival Javors performed with the festival orchestra conducted by David Amram.
Several of Javors' songs have been covered by other artists; "Cowboy Fantasy" and "Grace" by Bill and Bonnie Hearne; "Grace" and "The Garden" by James Durst; "The Real Woman in Me" by Bobbie Lace on Nashvile's 615 Records, which rose to the Number 2 spot on the Cashbox charts in 1987. Most recently, Peter, Paul, and Mary have chosen to include "Wild Horses" as a featured song in their concert tours.
Javors has been battling Type I diabetes since 1979, and received the "Gift of Life" from her brother Paul who donated one of his kidneys for a successful transplant operation in 1998. With renewed health and vigor, Javors is busy writing and co-writing songs in Nashville. She is a frequent performer writer's nights in popular hangouts around town like the Bluebird Cafe. Javors has spearheaded an initiative by the Folk Alliance on Artists in the Schools. Her latest CD, "Crazy Wisdom", produced by Fred Bogert of Trout Fishing in America has just been released on Chrome Records.
In 2002 Javors was a featured showcase performer at the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance, and in 2003 was a showcase artist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
Javors teaches general music at Paragon Mills Elementary School in Nashville where she has served on advisory boards for the Country Music Hall of Fame "Words and Music" program and collaborated with Paul Reisler on a Nashville Kid Pan Alley CD project, songwriting with local elementary students.