Welcome to my conversation with Melody Walker, a brilliant songwriter, singer and musician from California. Melody’s star is in the ascendant as an in-demand co-writer in Nashville, Tennessee, and she recently won a Grammy Award! Melody is a remarkable singer and performer with lots of interesting projects on the go, including the band BERTHA – Grateful Drag, which is causing quite the sensation. I’ve known Melody for a number of years and previously worked with her bluegrass-roots band Front Country. So it’s been fascinating to see Melody’s career blossom and develop. It was great to catch up with her for this interview, where we chatted about all these topics, as well as the value of building community in music, in all sorts of ways.

Womenfolk is a new podcast telling the stories of women working in roots music. Maria Wallace (True North Music) hosts in depth interviews with female musicians, songwriters, creatives and organizers. Please subscribe to the podcast and share the episode far and wide!

Links:

https://www.melodywalker.com/

https://www.gratefuldrag.com/

https://www.frontcountryband.com/

Follow Melody Walker and BERTHA: Grateful Drag on social media:

https://www.instagram.com/melodywritessongs/

https://www.instagram.com/gratefuldrag/

Listen to and buy Melody’s music:

https://frontcountry.bandcamp.com

https://melodywalker.bandcamp.com

BERTHA: Grateful Drag performance videos:

https://www.youtube.com/@GratefulDrag

For Nashville visitors/residents: Writer’s Kitchen every Tuesday at Jane’s Hideaway:

https://www.instagram.com/writerskitchenround

https://www.janeshideaway.com/music.html

Check out Melody’s most celebrated co-writes:

American Dreaming (Sierra Ferrell):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8e9nbsq-18

Crooked Tree (Molly Tuttle):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8lDUvDMoqQ

The podcast theme music ("The Old Ways - instrumental") was written by Maria Wallace and features Jay Bradberry (fiddle), Mike Giverin (mandolin), Lucille Williams (double bass) and Phil Stott (guitar). Copyright © and ℗ 2025 Maria Wallace. All rights reserved. This episode also features music clips from “Family Band” by Melody Walker and “Sake of The Sound” by Front Country, both written by Melody Walker. These were independent releases and the excerpts have been used with Melody Walker’s permission as the songwriter and owner of the publishing.