M.J. AULD LETS MUSIC TELL HER REMARKABLE TALE

By Ruth Ann Ruiz

The Post Newspaper Features Editor

Have the post-Christmas blues set in? Are you missing all the family who you only see for the holidays, or did you get bumped off a flight to visit family due to that subject we are trying to avoid? Perhaps you overspent, or maybe you are just sick of Christmas and need a real life kick you in the pants kind of feeling.

Whatever your reason for feeling the blues, find yourself a seat or a standing spot at a Melissa Jones Auld gig and she’ll sing the blues right out of you. Her Texas twang, combined with her hand clapping, foot-stomping beat, leaves no room for feeling down and out.

Once she starts belting out her tunes, there just isn’t enough space for your own blue feelings. She’s a country music singer/songwriter ready to kick it up and she isn’t even wearing boots. Her stacked platforms will still walk all over you if she needs to. She also brings a lot of contemporary themes to her work while keeping it real country. 

Living half of her childhood in an extreme version of a Christian home, she learned how to sing church music. “We weren’t allowed to listen to any other type of music back then,” said Auld. 

Then one day her daddy and mommy just up and quit the church and the real music got turned on in her house. “My parents became hippies and started listening to Elton John and Linda Ronstadt,” explained Jones. 

“My dad used to strum his guitar and they began teaching us that grace and faith was more important than the rules of the church,” Jones added.

Growing up, she moved around a lot attending countless different schools in the Plano/Dallas region. “I couldn’t afford to be shy because I had to make friends wherever we went,” she said. 

She is not shy about sharing her full life with her music fans; she lets it all hang out, such as singing or just chatting about her sister who ran off with her husband or was it her husband who ran off with her sister? 

It doesn’t really matter who comes first in the sentence: they ran off together.

Her life is pure country music lyrics and if you are feeling down, her life will make yours’ seem like a walk on the beach. 

“I got married when I was 21, had a little girl by age 22 and was divorced at 23,” said Auld. For a while she worked as a receptionist in Dallas. “My second marriage was to someone 10 years older than me, and we had a daughter together. Our baby girl was 2 years old when ‘ole hubby ran off with my sister,” said Auld.

Her next stop was cosmetology school and Auld worked as a hair stylist for 20 years. One day she was sitting listening to her daddy play the guitar and asked him to teach her to play. 

“It was such a beautiful day, I said to him, ‘I wish I could play like that.’ So, he taught me three chords: G, C, &D,” said Auld. “He handed me his guitar and told me to practice.”

She set out to learn and practiced till her fingers were sore and she had mastered the first three chords. 

For her 32^nd birthday, her daddy bought her a $3,000 guitar and he got her started with lessons with Sam Swank. 

While she was learning the guitar, she also married for a third time. Ending marriage number three triggered her burning urge to be on a stage. She went out hitting the pavement seeking live gigs as a backup singer and performing at open mic nights. Before she knew it, she was booked as a headliner.

She also met husband #4. So far, he is a keeper. There’s a song about him in the early years when he was still her boyfriend and some waitress kept flirting with her man. The song says something to the effect of you ain’t woman enough for my man. 

 Auld went to Nashville where she recorded her first EP. “Those musicians in Nashville are just incredible to play with,” said Auld. Then her husband got transferred and they moved to New Mexico. Once again, she was the new girl on the block. Out the door she went, seeking live gigs and was quickly absorbed in the local scene. 

While on the beach in Galveston for a vacation during June 2020 the couple dreamed of a new life near the water. They put their house up for sale, sold it in a matter of a days and loaded up the moving van. Their final stop was a house in Texas City.

With a website and experience, she was able to start booking gigs very quickly in the upper Texas coastal region. One of her first gigs was at Friends Uncorked in Friendswood. Sharon Dietrich got her up on stage as quickly as she could. 

“My patrons were asking ‘who’s that?’ so I knew we wanted her back. She puts an energy into her music with her modern twist but still keeps it from the classics and people love her,” said Dietrich.

Melissa’s father passed away six years ago and her mother lives with her and husband #4. Her two daughters are now in their 20’s and living life in Texas. 

As for her sister, well you’ll just have to pay close attention to her own songs, because one of them is sure to tell how and what is going on in that area of her life.