ABOUT

Old time and bluegrass musician Melissa Chilinski is an artist people remember. With her nimble banjo and rich, jazz and country inspired vocals, she’s been called a pairing of Gillian Welch, Medeleine Pyroux, and Norah Jones – an old-time-meets-modern vibe that keeps listeners hanging on to every vocal and instrumental note. “Chilinski paves her own way,” reads a review of her self-titled album, “turning the timeless into something beautiful and brand new.” 

A fixture on the Bluegrass scene since her arrival in Salt Lake City, Melissa can be found on the area’s premier stages, filling the State Room, taking the bandstand at annual events like the Ogden Music Festival, holding court in the Gibson Lounge in the Grand America Hotel, and regularly sitting in with top bands including Pixie and the Party Grass Boys, Hot House West, Josie-O and The Big Six, the Elderblossoms, Pompe n’ Honey, and more. Over the course of multiple albums, she’s carved out a distinct sound: warm and resonant vocals layered over banjos and fiddles that move fluidly between heritage techniques and modern phrasing. Songs reflect her range and story-telling styles, from the love lament of “Could Have Had It All,” to the haunting true legend of “The Blind Miner,” to the small-town campground host of “Hanksville,” a guy who found his small town had gotten too darned popular. Her River Green Sessions album forges a literal bond between her two passions (music and the outdoors), recorded with ambient sounds from a day trip to the mountains, and layered with songs such as “Like a Desert Flower” (written and recorded with David Baker) and the two “River Green” title tracks that feel they’d be at home on either playlist or soundtrack. Her discography reflects both her musicianship and stature, with her self-titled 2025 release and those with band Pompe n’ Honey putting her voice front and center, and the lilt of her trademark harmonies gracing the tracks of numerous other artists.

Melissa’s arrival on the bluegrass scene was at once expected and a departure. Picking up a banjo the first time a decade ago felt like a perfect fit. Yet her roots growing up and attending concerts in her Boston-area hometown veered more funky than folk. But frequent trips to Turn it Up records drew her continually to the scratchy recordings of Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham, Adam Hurt’s Earth Tones album, and any Bela Fleck album she could get her hands on, particularly his Throw Down Your Heart records, and the 1999 Bluegrass Sessions. “Even before realizing what any of it was called,” she says, “I kept being drawn to folk, old time, Irish, and bluegrass music.” The earthy sounds of old-time banjo caught her ear first, inspiration coming from the likes of Tim O’Brien’s Fiddler’s Green, Dirk Powell’s Hand Me Down, and Songs from the Mountain. Legendary early Folk, Country, and Bluegrass artists, like the Carter Family, Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley, Pete Seeger, Ola Belle Reed, Elizabeth Cotton, and Earl Scruggs, filled her CD booklet.

“Some people in the bluegrass/old time scene spent their childhood’s going to festivals,” she says. “They’ve played fiddle since they were in diapers. Which is so beautiful. But I think finding it organically, because something called to my soul, is also interesting and powerful.”  The tug, she says, comes from the folk traditions, the sounds of the mountains where Melissa (a rock climber and farmer with a Master of Soil Science) is especially at home, as well as the unmistakable community vibe.

Melissa remains committed to all those elements, notably the community, for which she created the Trash Moon Collective. Today Salt Lake City’s hub of old-time/bluegrass music, the organization hosts events, workshops, and performances around the area, welcoming people to be at once audience, participant, and community member. She’s hosted house concerts and workshops for well-loved artists in the scene like Brittany and Natalie Haas, Brad Kolodner, Jake Workman, Duncan and Lily Henley, Shelby Means, Maya DeVitry, and more.

“I’m bringing all the components of myself into one unique artistic voice,” she says. “Instead of choosing just one style to play, one identity to sound like, I’m making something new that reflect who I am. It truly feels very poetic to how I feel personally - weaving more pieces of myself into one.”

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