Melissa Livingstone Is Here for the Long Haul

Melissa Livingstone knew what she wanted remarkably early.

She grew up in Ucluelet, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, in a home where music was already part of everyday life. Her mother was a musician, and Livingstone remembers being surrounded by songs long before she understood what it meant to make a career out of them. By four years old, she was already singing for friends and family in the house and telling herself that performing was what she wanted to do with her life.

That instinct never really disappeared.

When her family later moved to Kelowna, Livingstone was 17 and finally had the opportunity to begin recording. She admits she had no idea what she was doing at the time, but the direction was already clear. She loved performing, she loved songwriting and she wanted to build a life around both. MelissaL

Her mother became one of the first people to give that dream structure. Livingstone took piano lessons from her and credits her with helping pave the way toward country music. More than simply introducing her to the instrument, her mother gave Livingstone the confidence to believe music could be more than something she did at home.

“My mom was probably my biggest supporter,” Livingstone says. MelissaL

From Ucluelet to Nashville

Livingstone began traveling to Nashville in 2017.

As a songwriter, she already understood the gravity the city carried, and once she finally visited, the idea of living there became difficult to shake. Nashville gave her access to something she had been searching for: a city built around songs, writers and people trying to turn music into a life.

Moving from Canada was not as simple as packing a car and driving south. Livingstone had to navigate the visa process first, but once that came together, she officially made the move in 2022.

“I came to Nashville because I knew that I had to come here and visit,” she says. “As soon as I got here, I fell in love with the city.” MelissaL

The move placed her thousands of miles away from the small coastal community that had helped shape her, but it also put her in the middle of the world she had spent years trying to reach.

That transition eventually became part of the music itself.

The Moment She Almost Walked Away

Livingstone’s career nearly ended before it had much of a chance to begin.

Around 2015 or 2016, she attended the Canadian Country Music Awards in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Instead of walking away energized, she left overwhelmed.

She did not know anybody.

She did not understand how the industry worked.

She did not know where she was supposed to begin.

For a young artist standing on the outside of an industry that seemed to already have its own language and relationships, the gap between loving country music and knowing how to build a career inside it felt enormous.

“I went home, and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I don’t know what I’m doing.’”

She did not stop.

Years later, she can look back at that moment from Nashville and recognize it as one of the first times she learned something she still carries with her: not knowing how to do something does not mean you are supposed to quit doing it. MelissaL

Contemporary Country With a ’90s Foundation

Livingstone’s sound sits between contemporary country and the music she grew up hearing.

The ’90s remain a major influence, particularly in the way she approaches upbeat material, but storytelling has always been at the center. Miranda Lambert is one of the clearest examples of what Livingstone admires about country songwriting: the ability to take a specific story and make the listener feel like they have lived inside it.

Her influences also include The Chicks, Shania Twain, Amy Grant and Randy Travis, a group that reflects the different musical worlds she grew up around.

Livingstone does not see influence as imitation. She says she has always been intentional about sounding like herself, even when listeners compare her to other female country artists.

“I’ve always created music that was definitely true to me,” she says. “I’ve never liked sounding like other people.”

In recent years, she feels the songwriting has become an even clearer representation of who she is. MelissaL MelissaL

Some of that identity comes from the place she grew up.

Ucluelet’s small-town environment taught Livingstone about community in a way that continues to surface in her writing. She remembers growing up surrounded by people who understood one another’s struggles and helped carry each other through difficult seasons.

Those experiences gave her stories about people, resilience and what happens when a community becomes part of how someone understands home. MelissaL

A Place for People Who Do Not Think They Like Country

Livingstone has heard an interesting comment repeatedly from listeners.

They tell her they do not really like country music.

Then they tell her they like her music.

Instead of taking that as a contradiction, Livingstone sees it as an opportunity.

She wants the songs to feel accessible enough that someone who does not identify as a country fan can still hear a piece of their own life inside them.

“I just want them to feel like they have a piece of their story in my music.”

That desire explains why Livingstone resists narrowing herself to one specific corner of country. The music can be energetic and danceable, or quiet and story-driven, depending on what the song requires.

For someone looking for the upbeat side of her catalog, Livingstone recommends starting with “Grew Up On It.” For listeners who want more storytelling, she points toward “Horse Is Back” or “More Time.” MelissaL

Her next project leans heavily toward that second side.

Stripping Everything Back

Livingstone has spent years thinking about making the project that is finally arriving now.

Her new six-song acoustic EP began as an idea shortly after she moved to Nashville. She wanted to take a collection of songs and remove anything that distracted from the writing itself.

For a while, that idea stayed on the shelf.

Livingstone was releasing singles and focusing on radio opportunities in Canada, and the stripped-down project kept getting pushed further into the future.

Then this year she reconsidered the entire question.

Why not make the project she actually wanted to make?

The result is an acoustic EP built around acoustic guitar, dobro and mandolin, deliberately leaving space around the vocal and lyrics.

“It really focuses on the songwriting and the vulnerability of being a songwriter and telling a story,” Livingstone says. MelissaL

The EP, “Seasons Change,” arrives October 2. MelissaL

For Livingstone, it feels less like a collection designed to chase a specific sound and more like an opportunity to let people hear the songs as songs.

“Home”

Of the six tracks, Livingstone points to “Home” as her favorite.

The song began before she ever officially moved to Nashville.

At the time, Livingstone felt caught between two places. Her life in Canada no longer felt completely right, but the life she wanted in Nashville still felt out of reach. She watched other people earning record deals and publishing deals and wondered how she was supposed to close that distance herself.

So she started writing.

Then she moved.

Once in Nashville, Livingstone wrote the second verse, allowing the song to evolve alongside the life it was describing.

The final section took longer. She eventually brought the unfinished song to her friend Taylor Rae, who helped her complete it.

What emerged was not simply a song about leaving home.

It became a song about redefining it.

The first part carries the feeling of knowing you need to leave. The middle captures the surreal realization that you actually did. By the end, Livingstone is looking at the friendships and community she has built in Nashville and realizing the city no longer feels temporary.

It feels like home. MelissaL

That evolution mirrors Livingstone’s own relationship with Nashville. What began as a destination eventually became a place where she could imagine staying.

“Would I Miss the Radiance?”

Another song on the EP, “Pot of Gold,” captures a different kind of transition.

Livingstone wrote the song alone with her guitar, building it around the tendency to keep chasing the next achievement.

There is always another goal.

Another milestone.

Another level that seems like it will finally make everything feel complete.

The image Livingstone uses is simple: a person standing beneath a rainbow but becoming so focused on finding the pot of gold that they stop seeing what is already above them.

One lyric summarizes the idea:

“Would I miss the radiance of a rainbow looking for that pot of gold?”

Livingstone says the line speaks to how easily people can overlook beautiful parts of their lives while searching for success, popularity or approval.

The warning is not against ambition.

It is against becoming so obsessed with the next thing that you fail to notice the life happening while you are pursuing it. MelissaL

That idea has become increasingly relevant to the way Livingstone thinks about success.

Nashville Changed the Expectations

Before moving to Nashville, Livingstone says she carried a long list of expectations about what being an artist and songwriter was supposed to look like.

Living there dismantled many of them.

The city showed her how large the music world actually is and how much effort exists behind careers that can appear effortless from the outside.

Opportunities happen.

Relationships form.

Doors open.

But Livingstone believes those things usually happen after someone has already spent a long time showing up.

“You kinda just have to dig your heels in and work really hard,” she says. “Nashville kinda makes you do that.” MelissaL

One misconception she hears frequently is that talent will automatically carry someone to the top.

People come to her shows and tell her she is talented enough to “make it.” She appreciates the compliment, but Livingstone has been in Nashville long enough to understand that talent is only one part of the equation.

Timing matters.

Consistency matters.

Relationships matter.

Being diligent matters.

“You have to put the work in.” MelissaL

That work ethic has not made her cynical about Nashville. If anything, it has made her appreciate the spaces where songwriting is treated seriously.

The Rooms Where Songs Matter

Livingstone names The Listening Room Cafe as one of her favorite places in Nashville to experience songwriting.

She has performed there herself and appreciates that the room emphasizes listening. The audience is expected to pay attention, giving writers space not only to sing but to explain where the songs came from.

For Livingstone, that storytelling is part of the experience.

She also points toward Raised Rowdy’s Rowdy on the Row as a strong writers-round environment, while Bus Call and Whiskey Jam provide full-band opportunities for artists who want to showcase another side of their music. MelissaL

Livingstone’s own live shows move firmly toward the high-energy side.

She loves interacting with the audience and wants people out of their seats.

“We’re gonna have a good time,” she says. “I love when people get up and dance.” MelissaL

That energy may sound different from the stripped-down EP, but the common thread is connection.

Whether the room is quiet enough to hear every lyric or loud enough for people to dance, Livingstone wants the audience involved.

Writing Through Loss

Some of Livingstone’s deepest songwriting instincts began in a much more difficult place.

Her father died when she was 13 years old.

The loss shaped her life broadly, but it also shaped the reason she began turning toward songwriting with greater seriousness in her teenage years.

She did not have a sophisticated understanding of grief.

She had songs.

Writing became the place where she could put emotions she did not otherwise know how to process.

“The only way that I knew how to cope was writing songs.”

That origin still matters. Even as Livingstone writes upbeat material and plays high-energy shows, songwriting remains something more personal than content or career strategy.

It began as a place to put things she could not carry anywhere else. MelissaL

That experience also adds another layer to the themes running through Seasons Change.

The project deals with endings, transitions and the complicated process of finding a new version of life after something or someone is no longer part of it.

When Friendships End

Livingstone says the new EP is especially for people navigating change.

That includes romantic breakups, but it is not limited to them.

One subject she specifically wanted to explore is the ending of adult friendships, something she feels people do not talk about nearly as much as romantic heartbreak.

Friendships can become foundational.

They can shape entire seasons of someone’s life.

And when they end, there may not be the same language or cultural rituals people use for a breakup.

Livingstone wanted the songs to leave room for those experiences too.

The title captures her larger point: seasons change.

Relationships change.

People change.

New challenges arrive.

New experiences replace old ones.

Somewhere inside those transitions, Livingstone hopes listeners find a song that feels like theirs. MelissaL

Learning That Music Is Still Art

Livingstone has spent enough time pursuing music professionally to understand the business side.

Streams matter.

Shows matter.

Emails matter.

Deals and opportunities matter.

But lately she has been trying to remember that music existed before all of those measurements.

“What I’m learning,” she says, “is that nothing matters.”

She does not mean that the career is meaningless.

She means that there is a limit to how much control an artist can exert over the outcome.

At the end of the day, Livingstone creates because she likes creating.

Music can become a business, but it is still art first.

She hopes listeners can hear that enjoyment in what she makes. MelissaL

That realization has also complicated the way she defines success.

A few years ago, the life she has now would have looked like success.

Then she reached it.

Suddenly, it did not feel like enough.

There was another hill.

Another phone call.

Another email.

Another goal.

Livingstone has begun recognizing how dangerous it can be to move the definition of success every time you reach it.

“I actually did everything that I wanted to do,” she says.

Success, she believes, has to become something the individual defines rather than a finish line that constantly moves farther away. MelissaL

That lesson feels remarkably close to the message inside “Pot of Gold.”

Sometimes the rainbow is already there.

Dreams That Are Still Ahead

Recognizing what she has already achieved does not mean Livingstone has stopped dreaming bigger.

Her dream collaborators include Miranda Lambert and Cody Johnson, two artists who represent different parts of the country music world she loves.

Her venue list is equally ambitious.

Red Rocks.

The Grand Ole Opry.

And Boots and Hearts Music Festival in Canada, a stage Livingstone has wanted to play for years.

Those goals remain important, but they no longer erase what has already happened along the way. MelissaL

If she could speak to the younger artist who once returned home from the Canadian Country Music Awards convinced she had no idea how to build a career, her advice would not be complicated.

Keep going.

Then keep going again.

“I would tell myself, the younger version of myself now, if I could, that it’s worth it, and to keep going and keep going and keep going, and then keep going.” MelissaL

Change

When asked for one word to describe the chapter ahead, Livingstone chooses “change.”

It is appropriate for an artist releasing a project centered around the same idea.

She left a tiny town on Vancouver Island.

She crossed borders.

She rebuilt community.

She learned how grief could become songwriting.

She learned that talent alone does not build a career.

She learned that reaching a goal does not automatically make someone feel successful.

And now, with Seasons Change, she is taking songs that have lived with her for years and presenting them with almost nothing between the listener and the story.

The project may be stripped down, but the life behind it is anything but simple.

Perhaps the clearest statement about where Livingstone stands now comes at the very end of the conversation.

After years of figuring out where she belongs, what success means and whether the work will eventually lead where she hopes, she sounds less interested in predicting the ending.

She is more certain about staying long enough to see it.

“Right now I want people to know that I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for the long haul.” MelissaL

Music City Musicians, Issue 019: Melissa Livingstone.

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