Time for Melanie Lowe's Reckoning?

Something wonderful and amazing has happened in my life over the last few weeks and I really want to share it with all of you because you all have stood by me over the years and supported me. I want you to know I appreciate it so much. I love sharing this journey of life with all of you and I think you deserve to know the whole story to really understand why this is such a big deal to me. So here goes...

A few years back I lost the love of my life; my love for music. Some of you may have guessed something was up, some of you knew, some didn't care either way, but I did. I cared very deeply. Somehow my passion for my first love got lost in amongst the noise of life. It became all about business, and appearances, and singing songs that didn't matter, and less about what was important to me, which was being authentic in my life and my music. There was a lot going on in my life and I felt myself pulling further and further away from my guitar and from the need to write songs and sing them. This blog post was probably a bit clue of what was to come, but I kept ignoring it thinking it was just a phase and I'd get over it.

I didn't. It got worse until, one morning, I woke up and knew I didn't want to do music anymore. For someone like me, this was like assigning me to a no-man's land. The world lost all of its colour and meaning with that single thought. How was I supposed to define myself without music at the centre of everything? I didn't know myself any other way. Nobody really did. I felt completely set adrift and I didn't know how to get back to safe harbour.

It made no sense, but I knew I had to listen to that voice in my head and trust my instincts. It's one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make. But I'm not the kind of person who can pretend to be happy when I'm not. When I feel something, I feel it all the way and I knew I couldn't lie to myself anymore.

I am so fortunate to have such a supportive wife. When I told her, I know she didn't fully understand, but she was 100% behind me whatever I decided. It's so hard to explain to someone why something like this is so hard for me. It's not like leaving a job. It's like leaving ME. It was so inherent in me, I didn't know how to be anything else. Music was me, and I was music. I lived music down to my soul and beyond.

I'd always had a passion for health and fitness, so I decided to study. For 2 years, I did an advanced diploma in exercise science and I tried hard to deal with my emotions when it came to music. I finished my studies and qualified and I built a gym at home, with the full support of my wife, and I opened a personal training business, and, all the while my guitar sat gathering dust. Now and then a gig came up and I did it, but I didn't feel anything. I was so shut off to it emotionally. I didn't know how to process it. So I ignored it.

Warning: This is where things get spiritual;) I began to do some real soul searching towards the end of last year and I decided to try something called resonance repatterning. Slowly, I started to deal with everything that had happened in my life in the last 4 or 5 years. There was a lot. I'd lost some very close friends in horrible ways. I'd lost my music and I hadn't even begun to deal with that. I'd lost myself in all the chaos and I didn't know how to find my way back to me. All of it sat like a big, heavy rock in my chest and I hid behind it unable to push it out of the way and start LIVING again.

As the months went by, something in me started to shift. I could feel it. It wasn't just that I suddenly started feeling okay with everything, it was also that people around me started reacting differently to me. Repatterning apparently does that. It affects people around you because your own patterns change and they react to it.

In short, the rock in my chest didn't just move, it disintegrated, and the universe noticed it happen, and it started to open up a door deep inside me that had been locked and barred for years. Maybe you guessed it, my music heard the handle turn and it woke up again:)

So that brings me to the here and now, nearly 4 years later. I'm sorry it took so long, but sometimes you have to take a time out. Life is about the journey, and this was part of mine and I don't regret it at all. I'm grateful because I'm a much stronger person because of it. I'm nicer too because I finally like myself as I am and that makes me so much easier to be around;)

Enter the band, The Reckoning. They were in the market for a new female lead singer, and when I heard it, the door in my heart opened fully, and the music in me responded and I didn't even think twice, I just said yes.

You, my amazing fans, are the first to hear about it. You always will be because that's how we roll:) Below is the press release for your reading pleasure. Thank you for reading, thank you for caring and mostly thank you for not losing faith in me, even when I lost faith in me. I love you all loads and I'm SO EXCITED to be back!!!

See you all at the gigs:)

PRESS RELEASE - 27 April 2016

TIME FOR MELANIE LOWE'S RECKONING?

Take edgy rock/pop, combine it with progressive country rock/pop, add artists with decades of experience and what do you get? A sizzling musical chemistry that makes it simply impossible to look away.

Since her successful trip to the Idols finals, which made her a household name, she has performed on countless stages across the country and the globe with both local, and international stars. Her songs have been played on every radio station across South Africa and parts of Africa. She has been nominated for and won South African Music Awards, released several, critically acclaimed albums and is recognised by SAMRO as one of South Africa's top songwriters. Vocally achieved, she is one of the finest singers to emerge from South Africa, and now Melanie Lowe is the new addition to local class act, The Reckoning.

A man who is no stranger to the entertainment industry, having been part of it for 42 years, Stewart Irving's exploits include recording, songwriting, touring, television producing and TV journalism, but, without question, he is best known to South Africans for being the front man and lead vocalist of successful act, Ballyhoo, during the 80's. Their hit, “Man on the Moon” took the country by storm and is still well-known and loved today. Hits like “Heart of Stone” and “Superstar” firmly established his solo career, securing his spot within the South African musical elite as a gifted vocalist and songwriter. He is also the leader and founder of The Reckoning.

Formed in 2015, The Reckoning include a whole host of veterans on the South African music scene. Boasting names like Mike Pepper, Sez Adamson and Peps Cotumaccio, who, between them play 9 instruments and have a total of 129 years in the music industry, The Reckoning is bursting at the seams with experience and talent.

They are one of the few acts that can boast 5 lead vocalist, each of which are quite comfortable with, and capable of taking the lead vocally, making live performances by this band a veritable vocal feast of beautifully blended harmonies and catchy, melodic music; and with two accomplished songwriters in their corner, the band has no shortage of catchy, original music to perform. Add talented drummer, Graeme Swale to the mix, and you have a collaboration of such sizzling musical chemistry and talent, it will have you begging for more.

Catch The Reckoning live at Hard Rock Cafe in Sandton on 27^th May at 8pm and at the Radium on 28^th May and experience this wealth of talent for yourself. Loyal fans certainly won’t be disappointed and new fans will be absolutely captivated!

Submitted by :Mellow Music cc
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