Singer  -  Songwriter  -  Recording Artist - Unitarian Universalist Minister

Concerts - Classes - Workshops - Worship - Rites of Passage

I combine my passion for singing and performing with my drive for personal expression in my songwriting. My songs of psychological growth and spiritual deepening are insightful, challenging, inspiring, and occasionally funny. In my songwriting and in my performing, I share my vulnerability, insight, strength, humility and humor, inviting my audience to touch the deepest parts of themselves, and offering inspiration for life's journey.

As part of my own healing journey, I found a spiritual home, and a place to share my gifts, within Unitarian Universalism. For more than a decade now, I have developed and provided a variety of services to UUs, including leading worship services; providing music for services and events; teaching classes; co-facilitating spiritual retreats; offering pre-nuptial assessment and officiating at weddings, and giving workshops at denominational gatherings. In 2004, I relocated to Boston to prepare for Unitarian Universalist Ministry. I have now completed my Master of Divinity degree and other requirements for Unitarian Universalist ministry, and in May of 2009, I was granted Preliminary Fellowship as a Unitarian Universalist minister. I will be ordained to the ministry by my home congregation, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin, on March 21, 2010.

Much of the work I do in Unitarian Universalist contexts is adaptable to and appropriate for a variety of audiences, including other liberal religious organizations; folk music devotees; women's organizations; therapy, support, self-help and 12-step groups; mental health professionals; health and wellness conferences, and other individuals or organizations interested in personal growth and transformation.

About My CDs

I released my 4th CD, Breathe Me Open, in the fall of 2004. I'm tremendously excited about this collection of songs of blossoming, living, loving, saying good-bye, and the faith and courage to do it all again and again. Leslie Stephany joins me once again, lending her incredible ear for harmony to my melodies, her deep passion to my words, and her indomitable spirit to the sound and the enterprise; Philip Delaquess adds his lovely cello accompaniment to two of the songs; and my husband, Anders Hörnblad makes his debut on the djembe.

My third CD, All Here! is a collection of intimate songs of psychological growth and spiritual deepening. Many of the songs grew out of, and furthered, the work I did during several years of psychotherapy, when depression led me to face the challenge of exploring my past and transforming my life. The CD includes audience favorites "My Grandmother Lives in Me," "All Here," and "The Whole of Me." Guest artists Leslie Stephany (soprano), Deborah Phelps (alto), and Jane Peckham (pianist) join me for the title song and "The Whole of Me."

My 1999 recording, Calling My Wisdom Home, is a collection of several of my own songs, written early in the process of therapy, a couple of folk standards, and a few wonderful songs by some of my favorite contemporary singer/songwriters.

In my late teens and early twenties, I lived in Sweden for several years, and I developed an extensive repertoire of Swedish folk and troubadour songs. I specialize in the work of Sweden's best-known and most beloved troubadour, Evert Taube, and my translations of his songs have won acclaim from Scandinavian and American audiences. In 1999, I recorded and released A Talk While Dancing: Emily Melcher Sings Evert Taube, a collection of my translations of songs by Evert Taube. I offer performances from my Swedish repertoire as well as lectures and workshops to audiences in the US and Scandinavia.