Melissa Sigler, like Marcia Ball, is an R&B singer-pianist from Cajun country whose throaty alto can travel from growling confessions to mellow ballads with ease. Nashville Scene, Jan. 2005

Melissa Sigler - Offbeat magazine named Melissa as the "Best Emerging Blues Artist for 2001". They weren’t alone. Dirty Linen, Blues Review, and a host of other magazines here, and around the world ( London, Belgium, Italy - you get the picture) have had rave reviews of her new album. She brings new life to the tradition of Louisiana blues women. Her songs have humor, heart, and of course a good portion of the blues. She’s in Nashville now, and we love that. Her radio performance for "Americana Tonight!" a few weeks ago will no doubt be one of their most treasured broadcasts. You’re gonna love this. Don McNatt, 2nd Wednesdays House Concert, Antioch, Tennessee, Jan. 2005

Melissa Sigler - There is nothing I like better than a female Blues singer who can "rock and growl," while preferably playing the piano! You thoroughly made my day yesterday, and now I'm sitting at home back in Dallas enjoying the three CD's we bought . Keep up the good work. You're the best I've heard in a long time!
Joy B., Music Journalist, Dallas, TX, April 2003

Music City Blues Society - Nashville TN
Louisiana-bred Melissa Sigler has recently relocated to Music City to further her writing and performing career. She certainly has a leg upon the competition with the release of her latest CD, "Secrets." Produced by Grammy-winning Harold Cowart (who does double duty as bassist), this CD is a fine taste of jazz-inflected blues from a true-fine-piano-pounding-red-hot mama!!
Raised in the Lake Charles, LA, area, that also was Janis Joplin's stomping grounds, Melissa possesses that rare vocal ability to go from a purr to a growl in a heartbeat! And, "Secrets" is full of songs about love and sex from a gal who's not shy about saying what's on her mind!
Melissa is joined by Randy Carpenter on drums, Bob Henderson on guitar and sax, the aforementioned Mr. Cowart on bass, Lucille Ridges on slide guitar, and Gina Forsyth on fiddle. Together, they make a good gumbo stirred up nice by Melissa's rollicking 88's and hot vocals.
Anyone who's ever been in or out of love can relate to these songs. A lover who just can't seem to commit makes one wonder if he wouldn't just "Be Happy Blue." The slyly-sexy "Light On In The Kitchen" is just in case the lover who just left wants to come back. On "Poor Me," Melissa is glad she got rid of Mr. Wrong (or IS she?), so she can do what she really wants. And, on the rockin' "I Know When I'm Left," she can see the writing on the wall when "it's over."
A fine sophomore effort from a clever, gifted writer and singer, Melissa Sigler can be spotted in various places 'round town on Writer's Nights. Catch her if you can, or pick up a copy of "Secrets," and---ENJOY!!! Until next time....Sheryl and Don Crow.

SECRETS - 4 Peppers!
MELISSA SIGLER

Blues Matters! - (United Kingdom) USA – MELISSA SIGLER: "Secrets"
Louisiana Red Hot Records. 12 tracks. Playing time 53.02.
I think a bit of lady lust is needed on these pages. Well here’s ‘Melissa Sigler’ coming to seduce you with her sultry and sexy vocals. Melissa is a Blues pianist from Louisiana, producing enchanting ‘pop’ tracks with a firm footing in the Blues and a jazzy/swing edge.
A singer/songwriter the songs throughout this album exude sex, lust and wanting through the lyrics, Melissa’s enchanting and rich voice, and the soft gentle playing from her band. This is particularly evident on tracks like, ‘Be Happy Blues’ and ‘Light On In The Kitchen’. There’s a lot of ‘Christine McVie’ (Fleetwood Mac) in Melissa’s songs, think ‘Rumours’-era ‘Songbird’, ‘Oh Daddy’ and you get a good idea of Melissa Sigler’s style and output. The album is packed full of emotion and feeling and when Melissa hits the right buttons she can be very hard to resist...... A red Hot Mama with an album that sizzles. D.Howells

Melissa Sigler offers up a mélange of blues, zydeco, and jazzy pop on Secrets (Louisiana Red Hot 1148). Sigler is a pianist/singer from the eastern Texas/western Louisiana area. She uses her enchanting voice well on the slowly swinging "Light On in the Kitchen" and the pop ballads "Cold Summer Day" and "No Good Reason". Straighter tunes like "Poor Me" and "Freight Train Blues" move convincingly, the latter painted with deep fuzz riffs from guitarist Lucille Almond Ridges.

Melissa Sigler Secrets [Louisiana Red Hot Records LRHR 1148 ] It's easy to see Melissa Sigler eventually joining the class of Louisiana's bawdy mamas. The smoky alto's pipes are gutsy enough to pin ya' against the wall, and she can outgrowl the mangiest pit bull. With Sigler pumping away on the keys, her sophomore album finds her extending her jazzy-bluesy material and taking a few chances along the way. Gina Forsyth adds some arty fiddle ("Back to the Bayou," "Zydeco"); the instrumental "2000 Blues" is a torching closer featuring Lucille Ridges' fiery guitar passages and Sigler's capable accompaniment. Still, Sigler's strength lies in her ability to cast whatever mood she wills upon her audience, whether it's beckoning seduction or tranquil harmony. Her songs can be funny, with lines like "I don't have to be nice when your parents call" ("Poor Me"), or simply rollickingly enjoyable, such as "Save a Place for Me in Texas." Here the loungy live feeling is never lost. (Dan Willging)

"Secrets" Review in RootsTown Music - Belgium check out Radio Sinaai, 105.5 FM Belgium "Mojo Dreams"

Translated quotes: (Sent in by editor, and much appreciated)

"She has a good and strong voice, probably sparkling when heard live."

"Anybody that loves New Orleans music, comes to the right address with Melissa Sigler"

Secrets - OffBeat
"You're not fooling with a half-cocked kid," warns Melissa Sigler in the lyrics of "Be Happy Blue," from her second album Secrets. And indeed, Sigler, who's been touted as Louisiana's answer to Marcia Ball, has the piano chops, the deep-throated microphone presence, and the world-weary songwriter stance that distinguishes her from anyone's idea of a neophyte.

The Marcia Ball comparison is just a way of describing her as a distaff blues pianist, because Sigler has a style all her own. One that's still emerging, but a fascinating one nonetheless. The sound on Secrets is-fittingly, given the title-darker and quieter than her year 2000 debut, Easy Way Out. The entire sound (a fairly straight blues-rock) is airbrushed slightly, so much so that even a rocking fiddle track like "Zydeco" seems cushioned, yet there's an urgency bubbling under it all that Sigler's vocals and lyrics are left to deliver to the top. And as a member of the Louisiana Songwriters' Association who hosts a songwriters' night in her native Lake Charles, Melissa has no problem telling you exactly what's on her mind. The cheerily ironic "Poor Me" is a laundry list of things she'll get to do now that her love has gone, while the title track makes love sound like the dirtiest, most shameful of revelations.

Sigler's piano gets dwarfed in the mix sometimes, and the regional color gets a little too blinding on eager-to-please travelogues like "Zydeco" and "Back To The Bayou," but that's a rather common failing for such an uncommon singer/songwriter, and she demonstrates every ability to cast out cliche's when she's at full power, so that problem will likely work itself out in time. Melissa Sigler may be a secret herself to most of the music industry, but if she keeps traveling this dark road so well, she won't be one for long.
-Robert Fontenot, OffBeat Magazine

Baton Rouge Advocate By JOHN WIRT , Entertainment writer

Melissa Sigler opens Secrets in the contemporary blues-R&B manner of Robert Cray. One of Sigler's sidemen even adds trebly guitar. A Lake Charles singer, pianist and songwriter, Sigler complements her good songwriting skills with a mellow alto voice that occasionally breaks into a bluesy growl. Covering various Southern music styles, she puts a New Orleans beat into "Back to the Bayou," southwestern Louisiana and country flavor in "Zydeco," Texas swing in "Save a Place for Me in Texas," Percy Sledge-inspired soul in "No Good Reason" and low-down blues in "Light On in the Kitchen." If records are inevitably an approximation of a performer's live show, Sigler must be a fine live act.

Melissa Sigler "Secrets"
Curiosa la storia di Melissa Sigler che si presenta ora sul mercato con un superbo secondo disco. Già appassionata di musica fin da giovanissima,dove è stata membro di diversi gruppi locali cime pianista e cantante, ha poi abbandonato l'attività per dedicarsi alla famiglia per ritornare sulle scena da pochi anni facendosi valere come una interprete ed una vocalist di indubbio talento come "Secrets" lascia ben vedere. L'album focalizza lo stile della cantante che principalmente intriso ed inzuppato del suono della Louisiana, ma senza tralasciare echi di Chicago e una robusta dose di soul/jazz. Il CD raccoglie una serie di canzoni, tutte scritte dalla cantante, in cui emerge una struttura raffinata e aperta a diversi stimoli musicali in cui comunque il gusto melodico ammorbidisce il tutto. Melissa con la sua voce duttile, aperta e carnale si lancia in interpretazioni sicure ed accattivanti come in "No Good Reason" o ancora "Light On My Kitchen" in un disco gradevole e di sicuro interesse. (Roberto Menabò)

MELISSA SIGLER - EASY WAY OUT PenWoman Records
Lake Charles, Louisiana has a long history in music and adding to that is Melissa Sigler with her debut album Easy Way Out. Easy Way Out has twelve great original songs all penned by Melissa about living in the real world, the good times and the bad times. The first track You Made Your Mark features Melissa's deep rich vocals and piano along with a tasty lead guitar break by Tina Wing. Next is, In A Perfect World, a beautiful 'radio friendly' ballad. Highlights not only come from great songs like Storm Warnings, Bayou Boy, or the swinging blues of The Bra Slingin' Boogie, but also from the musicianship and tight playing of these women as can be heard on the title track Easy Way Out. This is a top blues album and one to look out for. -Eric Black, Blue Country 101FM

This goes down as smooth as fresh-squeezed lemonade on a hot, humid summer day..-Independent Songwriter Web Magazine

Even though Melissa Sigler's music may ensconce you to the point you'd swear you're in some shag-carpeted lounge sipping a glass of cognac, it's not one you've been in before. Instead of listening to the same banal cover hits, the Lake Charles keyboard-playing diva is the type of performer who can hold her audience to the point they forgot why they came in. Her deep, projective vocals are comfortably warm while she adeptly frames the chords or pounds out a boogie like "The Bra Slingin' Boogie" that's not at all a bust. While Louisiana-themed songs "Bayou Boy" and "Calcasieu River" are bonused with Mark Hebert's fiddling, Sigler's ballads are candidates for fuller, more orchestrated arrangements, more horns and guitars to complement her expressive voice and keyboards. No question Sigler's got the stuff. -Dan Willging OffBEAT Magazine

I think I would need to see this band live to truly appreciate them. Listening to mp3's just isn't doing them any justice. But from what I have heard, this is a group of extremely talented women. It is music in it's finest form. Her lyrics are creative and her voice is downright GROWLING BLUESY! Her strong contralto voice is totally suited to the mood. Whether she's lamenting or celebrating her voice slides in and out easily. Her band mates as equally talented blend together to form a wonderful trio of music that shouldn't be missed live or recorded make this band a must listen........... I say go buy the CD at her official website listed above.....GO GO GO>>>

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