If you missed Stanford…don’t despair. She’ll be back… Melinda Stanford writes in every vein from blues to ballads. She’s even set poetry like Robert Frost’s “Reluctance” to music. Once you hear her gorgeous, bittersweet setting you’ll be convinced his words and this music belong together…In addition to her skills as a songwriter, Stanford can deliver songs we associate exclusively with someone else and make them her own…She is a winning performer with a way of inhabiting a lyric. Her sweet demeanor gives her an easy rapport with the audience – so it comes as a bit of a shock when she launches into her darker material. She seems to have a direct line to intense heartache, something completely at odds with her fresh-faced exterior. Her exquisite delivery of Kander & Ebb’s “Coloring Book” (“Color him gone…”) had everyone searching their pockets for tissues. The plaintive ballad “Waitress Shoes”, about dreams delayed, should soon become a standard on the cabaret circuit, and her ode on a friend’s suicide-attempt captures desperation so acutely that you feel the pain in your own bones. What makes Stanford the performer a force to be reckoned with is her ability to infuse each song with a characterization – something which can lift cabaret from an evening of songs to an evening of theater.

Stanford unveils remarkable cabaret skills…Displaying an impressive range in both vocal style and interpretive skills, Stanford was at her best here, often bringing out nuances in the songs that others might have missed… [a] singer to watch out for!

Melinda Stanford’s musical compositions are original, diverse, and compelling. Her stunning and soaring vocals bring life to the wide-range of poetry used. I found the CD to be incredibly moving — what an experience!

Captivating, warm-hearted and energizing music -just beautiful. Tread on My Dreams has such a powerful range of vocals, it’s amazing that it’s all from one singer. I can’t help but picture myself running up hills, leaping up on a church pew, or singing on stage when I hear her songs. My all-time-favorite and a quintessential Melinda song is “Funeral Blues.”  It’s warm-hearted, awesome music!

Absolutely fantastic…When I listened to the Funeral Blues, I cried. I love this poem and Melinda did such a great job in making this into a lovely music. I also love the opening intro. The sound keeps ringing in my ears and it makes me happy all day. Melinda’s music is like angels singing to you. If you want to be happy, you must listen to her music!!! I love her CD and I hope she will produce a whole lot more in the very near future.

Great voice and variety. Very cool stuff. Nice variety of music, and her voice sounds great. The whole thing is a very impressive package (visually, aurally, etc.) “Do Not Go Gentle” is my choice for the “single” off the album.

An ethereal voice that carries love, heartache and wisdom. Poetry comes to life in a genre more applicable to today’s society. You can listen and more clearly understand what lies beneath each poet’s words. Tread on My Dreams makes you think; it is a wonderful CD.

Sets the bar very high for work of this kind – bravo. “Tread on My Dreams” is so beautiful, I still haven’t recovered nearly two months later. The choice of texts, the breadth, the economy, the totally natural way the words scan – not to mention the performances (great cello too) – just magically done. She really knocked this one out of the park – I hope there’s more to come!

Move over Norah Jones! Everything about Tread on My Dreams is winning: the title, choice of poetry, design, song order, composition notes, and above all, the wonderful songs and arrangements. My favorites: ‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’ – a perfect lead song, so upbeat and catchy; ‘Funeral Blues’; ‘The Soul Selects,’ with its insightful and sexy take on Emily Dickinson. But there’re all so good… a priceless gift.

There are many albums released to the market each year that appeal to the commercial or to a certain genre or fan base. It is the select handful that can most accurately be described as ‘art.’ Melinda Stanford’s ‘Tread on My Dreams’ is that album… It is an album that can and will be enjoyed by an entire family, from the youngest child to grandparent, to the point of obsession — and rightly so!

If you’ve always loved the music of poetry, this is your CD! The essence of poetry, and the essence of music — Melinda Stanford gets it all. She makes you hear the poems anew through her music. Just listen to ‘Amazing Grace’ or a Shakespeare sonnet, and you’ll feel you are rediscovering the classics. I loved it!

I had to tell you how wonderful your new CD, Off the Cuff, is. The best word I can think of to describe it was ‘spellbound.’  It was fantastic in every way, including your voice, your pianist, your song selection, and even the CD jacket graphics. You sang the classics with great feeling, and the arrangements with only a piano were perfect.

I love it, love it, love it! Your voice is so perfect for these fantastic songs— some of my favorites.  And I love the way that you can go from be-boppy to super sexy sultry to clear and pure.  What a voice you have.  I love it all.

What a great CD this is.  Your voice, so expressive, flexible, with a range of colors. Your choice of music, only the best.  We were dancing on the ceiling!

I love the name Off the Cuff, but my own preference would have been Off the Charts, since I believe that is what you have always been!

Thanks for sending me the link to your new CD–it’s beautiful. Your voice is really incredible! I love your slow songs the best.

We love your CD! We moved a CD player into the kitchen so that we could listen at meals. It is an amazing piece of work.

Melinda’s new album comes with tunes that are such standard numbers, that all of them sound families, even melancholic. Slow ballads such as ‘My Romance’ let her low to mid tones sound particularly beautiful.

Off the Cuff is truly wonderful. I even shed a tear on ‘My Coloring Book’ and I love the last number, ‘Lost in the Stars.’ Your voice has never been clearer or more sensitive to the material. I kept thinking it was so much like Ella Fitzgerald and her elegant, natural, seemingly effortless sound.

The new album is AMAZING!

It is essential that Melinda share her gifts with the world!