Blues Man Mel Waiters Comes West of The Mississippi

"Hole In the Wall" "Got My Whiskey," and "She Ain’t Drunk Enough" are siren songs for many women in the deep south of Thibodaux, Louisiana. Sherrie Streams, an employee of Cintas, a uniform cleaning service business in Thibodaux, says, "We love Mel down here in the bayou--his records are popular here, every jukebox down here has his songs in them."

Waiters said, "I sing about real life from the experiences I’ve gone through and people respond because they’ve been through it too." Go to any juke joint, bar or house and if there is food, women and liquor flowing, you can bet you’ll hear these songs. Mel Waiters, the true bluesman of the South, croons these and many other hits from his CD entitled "Material Things." His songs set the tone for nightly dancing and socializing for folks who love their food and drinks with good music.

Waiters has a smooth voice with a Southern twist, and his message drives home the message that with him around, everything will be alright. His ballads can move even the most stonehearted. He has chocolate brown skin that covers an attractive physique. He’s a man born to sing the blues with a rhythm and blues loop. If his music were to be compared to anyone’s, Joanne Taylor or Marvin Gaye come to mind. His melodic voice pulls you into his music as he sings of lost loves, ruined relationships and getting his groove on. His songs address all the territories of life.

Waiters hails from San Antonio, Texas where he cut his musical teeth in the church. Like most singers of his caliber, he describes in song what it’s like to find love, keeping it and losing it too. He puts his feelings on the line to show his audience, which is a predominately female one, that he’s not afraid to tell the truth, or of what it’s like to be in love with a good woman, a bad woman or both. "Running Stop Lights," a cut with a haunting vibe of yearning for a forbidden lover, expresses how hard it is to love someone who belongs to another. Heartwrenchingly happy songs are his forte, an oxymoron for sure, but it defines his lyrics.

Waiters’ song, "Hole In The Wall," from the "Material Things" CD, is a finger snapping dance song. It brings to mind memories of going out partying and looking for some place else to go after the clubs close. So you search for or had heard about an after hours joint that’s a hole in the wall; a place frequented by folks who know how to have a good time. It could be a bar or someone’s house or a shack out in the woods. Waiters said, " An Aunt of mine told me when she heard this song it would be one of my best sellers and she was right." Only the privileged few know where the hole in the wall joints are. "You go in a hole in a wall joint, start partying, you’re having a good time listening to good music, eating chicken wings and drinking whiskey," and before you know it, he says, "it’s seven in the morning and you're’ still in there." This song make you want find a hole in the wall and have a good time.

Many of the songs written by Waiters run the emotional high and low scale of being in love and then being devastated when your lover betrays you. If Mel Waiters can sing about it as he does then it makes perfect sense that listeners can relate to it and maybe get through their own personal situations a little easier. After all isn’t that what singers and performer do? They help people deal with the realities of life through song.

Sensual Vibes Mark Waiters as Power Force Among Crooners

Waiters is a lyricist and also plays instruments on many of his cuts that displays his prolific skill as a performer and entertainer. He is sensuality in its purest form. His music puts you in a time warp that conjures up memories when the game of love and relationships were simpler. The millennium couples of today could learn a lot just listening to his lyrics to solve problems of the heart. He’s old school and proud of it. His songs teach that being in love is okay, and if it lasts a lifetime with one individual, that’s great and if not, you must "Compromise," to make your marriage, love affair or what ever lasts a long time.

The "Woman In Need" CD is another Malaco Record production where Waiters breaks out soft and heavy crooning to women of how to find, get and keep a man. He tells women in "Second Class", to watch out for men who treat them like chattel. His "(Sex) Or Make Love," hits hard in places that may make many women question the casual, one night stands as opposed to making love. His opening verse, "Did he take his time or was he in a rush or did he touch you gently girl the way you want to be touched?" He’s telling women they shouldn’t accept second-class love affairs. If the man is satisfied during lovemaking then the woman should be too. Waiters wails sensually that, "Sex is one thing but making love has a meaning and when done right makes you feel like screaming."

Record Labels Lack Promotional Dollars For Their Artist

Waldoxy Records is a division of Malaco Records based in Jackson, Mississippi. The small label has allowed him to keep to his musical integrity yet, until he has a video to show the public who he is, his music will suffer the woes of many others like him who are just as talented yet are not properly promoted.

"Hit it and quit it," said Mel Waiters, "was a hit for me recorded on Serious Sound Records out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana." That record gained the attention of Malaco Records at the Jackson Music awards in Jackson, Mississippi. "Tommy Couch Jr. asked me to stop by any Monday afternoon and from that point I was taking off." He said I started off selling maybe 18 thousand units, did the remix at home for ‘Got My Whiskey,’the jocks (disk jockeys) went crazy over it and started buying the CD."

His latest project released on October 10, 2001 is titled "Let Me Show You How To Love." This CD sticks to the same format of celebrating good times with cuts like "Ice Chest," where he’s at a show with his ice chest and lawn chair, having a good time. There are ballads mourning lost loves and giving tribute to people like his "Big Mama," a cut that honors the grandmothers who are influential in a child’s life.

The inspiration for his songs come from growing up in church in San Antonio, Texas as an alter boy, singing sons such as, "I know Jesus loves me, because the bible tells me so." He’s a firm believer in the sanctity of marriage. He was raised with his sister and grandmother who brought him around women and that’s how learned their demeanor. "It taught me a lot about how and what women think about… Being real with my inner self and the experiences I had in my own life in forty-five years on this earth," helped shaped him.

A Balladeer Of The Highest Order

Waiters third CD is filled with ballads that put him in the same romance arena as Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye. The ballad "What I Had In You" was written by Richard Caisson out of LA. He says Caisson, "…is a musical genus and I admire his work. I don’t often accept work written by other people because I can write for myself but this song fit the direction I was going with this project". The cuts tells the story or a man and woman in a relationship that ended and they meet again many years later and the man realizes what he lost in losing the woman.

"When I heard it", Waiters said, "it brought tears to my eyes because I can relate saying to a woman that you’ve outgrown me."

The lyrics of Waiters songs deal with so many real life situations that many couples face as they live their daily lives. He’s claimed to have sowed his own wild oats before he was married. "I was single till I was 25. I had my fun; I learned there is a lot of difference between a girl and a woman." Raised in the old school way of providing the transportation for dates and footing the bill for meals, Waiters said it was how it was done, "It was the thing for a man to do, then I met a real woman and she offered to buy dinner for me, a different twist." Waiters said he liked being the one taken out for a change. "Her demeanor was different I learned there is someone out there interested in having a fifty-fifty love. He says after this encounter he became a different man. "This is when I could really start writing about life, when I learned the difference between a girl and a woman. It made me a man; I became more open towards a women’s feelings.

Mel Waiters said he’ll stay true to himself and write the music that makes folks yearn for what may never be. Yet he knows that he needs deeper promotion for his records to reach a broader audience. "I absolutely believe that without a video behind my main cuts I won’t ever be put in the mainstream," His deep baritone voice sadly said, "’Got My Whiskey’ and ‘Hole In The Wall’ are gold records, and I’ll probably die before anyone ever knows about it."