Melanie MacLaren’s deliberate, soul-stirring voice, wistful guitar playing, and keen ability to write about life as if life were simply writing itself is everything you could want from a modern folk musician.

Melanie’s lyrics have been described as “haunting yet humorous” and possessing a “sentimental cynicism” that “oozes with Gen-Z relatability.” This duality shines through in all aspects of her music— she’s a classic finger-style guitar that grew up playing classical, but uses ambient beds and distorted trad instruments to punctuate her compositions.  At her core, Melanie is a realist, with a gift for language that extracts beauty from even the darkest reality and a unique ability to blend a tongue-in-cheek sensibility with timeless folk style.

She released her stunning debut EP “Kill My Time” in 2022 independently to enthusiastic critical reception before gaining the attention of Tone Tree Distribution in Nashville. Within a few months of the release, she had signed with Tone Tree, landed several coveted playlist spots on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, recorded and released new projects and began touring.

In October of 2022 Melanie released a collaborative folk EP of duets “Tadpole Emporium” with songwriter Lorkin O’Reilly (DUG). In November, Melanie and Lorkin toured their project in the UK and Ireland with Alain McFadden of Ye Vagabonds, playing with artists like Ciaran Lavery and Joshua Burnside.

Fresh off of her first tour Melanie released her second solo EP entitled “Tourist” through Tone Tree in April 2023. With tracks featured on multiple playlist placements across platforms (most notably Spotify Fresh Finds and Spotify’s Best of 2022 Fresh Folk Finds), the highly anticipated EP expanded on the sound she established with her first project— one that reaches beyond convention and effortlessly weaves the threads of past and present.

In 2023 after the release of “Tourist” Melanie headlined her first US tour in the Northeast and Midwest at venues like like 3rd and Lindsley, The Basement, Mercury Lounge, Bowery Electric, The Middle East, Raccoon Motel to name a few, playing with other up and coming songwriters like Baerd, Paul Moody, Torri Weidinger, June Henry, and Quinn Devlin. She also opened for Jessica Lea Mayfield. In 2024 Melanie had the opening spot for Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke) on his acoustic tour in January and played to several sold out audiences.

After touring extensively in 2023 and early 2024, Melanie realized certain songs especially captivated listeners live, so she released a live to tape EP entitled “Songs are Ghosts” in May 2024. 

Melanie is currently working on a new project, the first single of which “Heaven Is,” came out June 20th. Coming out of a period of life marred by grief, loss and illness, the project is an ode to seeing things as they actually are— without mythology, without manmade glory. Melanie delicately lifts the veil of poetry and interpretation away from death, loss and love and demythologizes everything from the American landscape, to hot dogs, to the Space Race, to the afterlife. 

Not one to shy away from life’s paradoxes and dualities of life, this project contains by far Melanie’s most high-spirited and anthemic music to date. Produced by Max Helgemo (who produced her exuberant 2023 cover of Loudon Wainwright III’s The Swimming Song) this project brings out Melanie’s inborn classic Americana sensibilities while staying true to her instinct for flipping conventions of genre and subject matter on their head.