The word “MAMA” – especially when it is in all caps – invokes dedication, sacrifice, and support. And all that tracks for Melissa McKinney, who fronts the 2025 Triangle Blues Challenge-winning band MAMA. Even without her inspiring back story, McKinney’s recent accomplishments alone would make for impressive album liner notes:
By Barry Shuster
Melissa McKinney will not need directions to Memphis when she and her band MAMA hit the road in mid-January to perform at the 2026 International Blue Challenge. To coin a phrase, this is not her first rodeo. She took top honors at the Charlotte Blues Challenge as a soloist playing guitar, and progressed to the 2023 International Blues Challenge finals.
Given the talent required to take the stage at the IBC finals held at the historic Memphis Orpheum Theater, McKinney’s own review of her performance is surprisingly humble. “I’m not a professional guitarist,” she says. “It was an incredible experience, but I wasn’t ready for the national stage that year.”
Maybe humility is also requirement for success, because since then she and her five-piece band Mama and The Ruckus won the band competition at the 2025 MerleFest Music Festival on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C. She shared that stage with her daughter K McKinney, an accomplished musician in her own right, on bass guitar.
McKinney’s artistic journey began as a child growing up in West Virginia, “almost heaven per John Denver.” She started singing at age four. From there, she set her sights on a career in music, which she studied at Concord University in Athens, W.V.
“In college, I could only study classical music.” While her formal training is evident in the control, pitch, and resonance of her powerful voice, she knew early on that classical music was not her proverbial jam.
The grit and soul at the heart of her singing had its roots during her pre-teen years when she discovered and embraced the style of celebrated West Virginia traditional blues singer and guitarist Nat Reese.
Yet, like many musical artists in their formative stage, McKinney worked within a variety of genres. Early in her career she moved to Charlotte, N.C., and sang rock and country. She says she covered Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion. That says much about her vocal abilities, as it is hard to imagine any singer daring to even approximate their styles without seriously developed chops.
Still, “I was so influenced by gospel and blues,” says McKinney. Her inspirations include a lineup of great women blues artists, although Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton stands out for her “grit and power.” She also connects with Janis Joplin, and has performed tributes that honor her music.
As for Beth Hart, McKinney says “she is naked when she sings. She bares her entire soul.” McKinney finds special inspiration in that vulnerability, and with all due respect for other musicians, she believes one of the biggest influences for any blues artist – including her – is trauma. She is not alone in that view. To quote the iconic trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, “the pain and the struggle in the blues is that universal pain that comes from having your heart broken.”
The birth of McKinney’s daughter in 2001 shifted her focus not only to rearing her own child, but supporting the development and dreams of other youngsters, as well. “I started teaching music,” says McKinney. “When I moved back to West Virginia, I started an artist development program to help kids with their mental wellness and to grow as musicians.”
In 2010, she founded the Stages Music School in Princeton, W.V., an arts education center offering lessons and support to young musical artists. She is also founder and director of the One Voice Project that “offers young musicians the opportunity to travel with an empowerment and mental health awareness concert tour.”
“I want to use my voice for good,” she says. “For connection with my community,” going on to say, “I have a lot of students who have grown and hoped they would do music. I wanted to be able to inspire them [to realize] that it is not too late to follow their dreams.”
While her Stages Music School business remains in West Virginia, McKinney and her daughter now call Ashville home. “I love it here,” she says. “The support system and [it’s a] home to incredible musicians. There is a community here that I feel part of, where I am finding my confidence.”
Ashville is also where she continues to contribute to the greater good. She is a resident artist with LEAF Global Arts in downtown Asheville. Its mission is to “bring people together through music, art, and shared humanity.”
She is also co-founder of Women to the Front Music Festival, which celebrates women in all areas of the music industry and the organizations that support them. The WTF is also dedicated to removing inequality for women in the business.
As she prepares for the 2026 International Blues Challenge, McKinney also readies for the next big phase in her career, if not life. She describes it as a personal segue as much as a performance.
Now that her daughter is a grown young woman, McKinney says she feels she can enjoy her success as a parent and shift her focus back to writing, recording, and performing. “She is 24 and in her own music career,” says McKinney about her daughter. “I have no obligation to anyone but myself. I’m in the process of selling my business. I’m just really excited move forward with intention. I want to play music with good people.”
And, indeed, she will be playing with good people. At the 2026 performance at the IBC, she will be backed by a band she describes as “kick-ass”; you know, musician vernacular for stellar.
Accompanying her on guitar is virtuoso Duane Simpson. The rhythm section includes Nik Hope on drums and Andre Lyles on bass. MAMA’s horn section is Peter Dimery on sax and Johnathon Lloyd on trumpet. Marcus White plays keys.
As a writer and composer, McKinney’s set list will lean on her originals. “The competition is an opportunity level up career wise,” says McKinney, particularly the connections that can be made at the IBC. She says she looks forward to the attention she can draw to her music. “My name is starting to get noticed.”
And yet, in almost the same breath, she pays homage to “all the years working with the students” whom she hopes to continue to inspire and, sadly, honor their memory. A dear and especially talented student of hers passed away a year and a half ago. “I hope to share my journey with them,” she says, adding, “And, also, my love.”
