Melonie Cannon’s new CD, And The Wheels Turn – her first with Rural Rhythm Records – isn’t due until October 7, but there is a good bit of buzz building up already. A single, I Call It Gone, has been circulated to bluegrass radio and word of a duet video with Willie Nelson has just slipped out.

I had a chance recently to discuss all this with Melonie, and her excitement about the new project was evident throughout our conversation.

“We just wanted to make a record as good or better as the last one. I found a place for my voice that feels like home in acoustic music, and I don’t want to change it. This is the most natural and organic I’ve ever felt about my singing in my life.”

She had one previous self-titled release on Skaggs Family Records in 2004, and my impression of her was based solely on the glamour photos that had been associated with that project. I had expected an urbane, sophisticated woman-of-the-world, but when we first spoke, the voice I heard was as country as they come.

“Lord no… I’m the furthest thing from that glamour image! Shoot, I’m the biggest redneck there is.”

Melonie comes by her music chops naturally. Her dad is Nashville songwriting and producing legend, Buddy Cannon, whose credits include work with Shania Twain, Vern Gosdin and Mel Tillis. She grew up around country music and top country singers, but discovered bluegrass on her own as a girl.

“I was raised in the country world, and that was the music I heard. My dad worked for Mel Tillis when we were young, and I grew up with his kids – Pam Tillis was our baby sitter.

Still, my family had connections to bluegrass from way back. Daddy played in bluegrass bands in Lexington before he started playing country. My great uncle Dalton Tate gave my dad his first guitar, and he was a bluegrasser. He and his friends – all in their 80s – still get together every week to pick and sing.

I went to school with Deanie Richardson [New Coon Creek Girls/Patty Loveless] since first grade, and later married her brother. She started teaching me songs from the bluegrass and folk world when we were teenagers. (more…)

The first single from Melonie Cannon’s upcoming project, I Call It Gone, has been released to radio.

The song was written by Marla Cannon-Goodman, Jennifer Hanson and Michael Heeney, and offers the first glimpse at her next CD, And The Wheels Turn, due October 7 on Rural Rhythm.

It tells the story of ending a failed romance without remorse, and you can hear an audio sample below.

Listen now:

The new CD draws on the musicianship of some of Nashville’s top bluegrass artists, with contributions from Dan Tyminski, Adam Steffey, Tim Stafford, Randy Kohrs, Aubrey Haynie, Wyatt Rice, Jody King, Barry Bales and Deanie Richardson. Helping out with harmony vocals are Ronnie Bowman, Garnet Imes Bowman, Sonya Isaacs and more.

Melonie is especially excited about one guest artist, with whom she sings a duet. Country music legend Willie Nelson joins her for one track, Back To Earth, a song he wrote and recorded on his Songbird album.

He had high praise for the new CD.

"Melonie Cannon is one of the best singers I know. Her new bluegrass album is fantastic. I love her voice anyway, but singing with a great bluegrass band was a good idea. They blend well together. The fact that I got to sing with her on a song I wrote makes it even better.”

We hope to get some thoughts from Melonie about the new CD soon.