“. . . cagey and impressive work . . . eminently tuneful, curiously simple, delightfully wise” Greg Quill, Toronto Star (May 2005)

What do you call a singer-songwriter of extraordinary insight and musicianship, influenced by a blend of traditional and alt-country, folk, roots, blues and jazz, with a voice that ranges from a deep baritone to a soulful falsetto, and who has been known to yodel as the occasion demands? Call him Melwood Cutlery because anything more specific would be far too long for a theatre marquee and too mundane to do him justice.

Cutlery was born and raised in Ottawa’s west end. His father, a PhD geologist, and his mother, a head nurse at Kingston General, met on a blind date set up by a friend. They went on to raise five children, Melwood being fourth in line. His musical interest was evident by the age of eight as he monkeyed on his Mom’s upright piano and toughened his fingers on an uncooperative Regent acoustic guitar. Musical influences included guitar-playing songwriters like Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot and blues piano players such as Pinetop Perkins, Meade Lux Lewis, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Cutlery hit the road as a young adult, living a bohemian lifestyle and working odd jobs across North America. He lived variously in Vancouver’s Gastown; Santa Barbara, California; Wolfville, Nova Scotia; Austin, Texas as well as Toronto and Ottawa. Through all this, Cutlery was developing as a writer, musician and performer.

Eventually based back in Ottawa, Cutlery emerged as a unique personality in the early-1980s folk music scene. For two years, he held a weekly gig downstairs at the old Roxy on Elgin Street, playing piano, singing, highlighting his original songs, and jamming with musicians who eventually made up “The Melwood Cutlery Mess.” Other eclectic projects included being musical director of John Gray’s 18 Wheels/A Trucker’s Musical (mounted by Theatre 2000), fronting a dance band (The Fashion Plates) and channelling Buddy Holly in a two-month run at Toronto’s El Mocambo.

But these were side-projects as Cutlery built his reputation as a troubadour. He has been on bills with (among others) Steve Goodman, David Lindley, Dutch Mason, Jeff Healey, Ron Sexsmith, Jenny Whiteley, Jack de Keyzer, Mary Margaret O’Hara and Jane Siberry. He has performed in venues as far afield as Atlin, British Columbia, Dawson City, Yukon and Austin, Texas. He continues to draw sell-out crowds, most recently at Ottawa’s Red Bird in September