Lewis Melville is a Guelph, Ontario, composer, producer, and recording artist. As a result of his work exploring the role of music as a positive force in breaking down barriers between different cultures he has been called a "music-in-development activist". He began performing professionally in 1968, and is a veteran of the alternative Canadian music scene. Whilst pursuing a career as a Canadian roots musician, Lewis has maintained a keen interest in experimental music since the early seventies. He is an original member of the Woodchoppers Association, a Toronto-based free-style jazz orchestra. As a producer and performer his various musical adventures have taken him across Canada, North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Highlights of his musical career include: recording the traditional music of Tashi Nencha in Bhutan for Tashi Norbu, producing several albums involving over one hundred artists to raise money for international relief (Music For Peace, You Buy From Me, Work Songs, 60 Second Songs); co-producing and recording an album of songs by Su Tamootakoo, a musical group comprised of Karen students from a refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border; recording numerous upcoming musicians in Mali, West Africa, including Mansa Sissoko (a griot, kora player and songwriter), Wasselou musician Jah Youssouf, Ngoni virtuouso Abdoulaye Kone, and students at the National Institute for the Arts in Bamako. In 2005 he and fellow Woodchoppers travelled to Cuba with human rights activist and musician Daniel Fischlin on a project to study and document the Afro-Cuban Yoruba music of Matanzas.
In 1993 he co-founded Dave's Records of Guelph (DROG) with Dave Teichroeb. DROG is an organization dedicated to catalyzing new music by independent regional Canadian artists, building community through music, and using music to promote goodwill worldwide. Over 100 albums have been released on the DROG label, including five theme albums and three compilations.

As a multi-instrumentalist (guitars, banjo, pedal steel, dobro, mandolin), Lewis is well known for his performances with Canadian bands like the Skydiggers, Rheostatics, Grievous Angels, and Pat Temple and the High Lonesome Players. His playing can be heard on scores of albums by other artists (Cowboy Junkies, Bird Sisters, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Waltons, Kim Stockwood, 13 Engines, Tannis Slimmon etc.), including the multi-million selling album "Gordon" by barenaked ladies.

He has produced and recorded many albums for other artists, both independently and on the DROG label, as well as documenting live performances by many of the world's best experimental musicians for the Guelph Jazz Festival. As Woodchoppers' musical archivist, over the past eight years he has recorded most of the Woodchoppers' concerts, including their first release You Buy From Me, live tracks on the their seminal album Life is Not A Rehearsal, and Phantomopthera.

Lewis Melville recordings are available at Maple Music and Zunior.com

Current Activities:

When not appearing with the Woodchoppers, Lewis can be found playing banjo with the local roots bluegrass band the Hoofbeats, supporting Guelph singer-songwriter Tannis Slimmon, playing pedal steel with Michael Johnston, or performing as a solo artist. His songs have been heard on many of the CBC's (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) national shows, and his albums are available in Canada and worldwide through MapleMusic (www.maplemusic.com). Lewis is currently working on a fourth solo album, the latest DROG benefit theme album, "Afghanistan...On Guard for Thee" (scheduled for release in mid 2006), as well as co-producing a new album for Tannis Slimmon. He continues to working together with Lyn Vasey (program director of Charm Tong's School for Shan State Nationalities Youth) on a project supporting and documenting music in refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border, and is coordinating a collaborative project between the Woodchoppers Association and musicians from Mali, West Africa, in support of the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network. Additional projects include contributions to books on music improvisation teaching methods (Doug Friesen, Dave Clark, Daniel Fischlin, and others).

Discography:

Not Enough Room The Reverbs 1989 Ind.
Niagara Lewis Melville 1995 DROG
You Buy From Me Lewis Melville, Lyn Vasey, Woodchoppers 1998 DROG
Trials of This Lonely Man with Needy Fingers 1998 DROG
Have You Herd? with the Hoofbeats 1998 DROG
Not Really a Bluegrass Album Lewis Melville 1999 DROG
Life is Not a Rehearsal with the Woodchoppers Association 2001 Sonic Onyon
Noah's Work Lewis Melville 2003 DROG
Mayflower (with the Hoofbeats) 2005 DROG

Theme Albums

Truck Songs Various Artists 1987 DROG
Music For Peace Various Artists 1999 DROG
Food Songs Various Artists 1999 DROG
Work Songs Various Artists 2001 DROG
Sixty Second Songs Various Artists 2002 DROG

Contact: Lewis Melville

telephone (519) 824-8848 Email: lmelvill@uoguelph.ca