Mel Harker didn’t pick up a guitar professionally until he was 32 - a freak commercial freezer accident ended his successful career as a chef. Soon after he found a guitar at a pawnshop in Venice Beach, California (and his true calling), he has rarely been without one ever since. Whether he is on stage singing or at home composing, his guitar has been a constant companion through a life that has had as many twists and turns as an old grapevine. As he says, “Nothing ever goes bad while you’re singing.” His career has spanned from playing in numerous venues in Los Angeles to working with some of the greats from country to rock. He has played across California and won awards for his original songs, including the AWA Award for Best Cowboy Song of the Year in 2010 for “Cowboy Blue.” Harker’s music crosses many genres: he’s performed with the famous Caballeros and the Rhinestone Homeboys, and currently shows his talent twice-a-week as a regular at the famous Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California. As a founding member of one of the country’s top Blues Brothers tribute bands, he’s had success writing songs for made-for-TV movies and a feature film. One of his compositions, “Soldier’s Song,” written in honor of a young sergeant, who lost his life in 2010 in Afghanistan, continues to inspire those both within and beyond the military; revenues from its sale go to the Resurrecting Lives Foundation. As a songwriter, Harker is an unsung genius in telling a compelling story in just a few lines of poetry. Some songs break your heart; others leave you laughing; all carry that Harker magic for making both melodies and messages memorable. Whether he is writing country, blues, pop or rock, he says that when he gets an idea, the “best songs take five minutes to write.” The rest of us might add: if you’re Mel Harker. “What a Way to Go” From coming under the spell of a chick with blue lipstick to cruising the empty roads for some highway lovin,’ Mel Harker’s “What a Way to Go” takes us on a joy ride of rhyme and rhythm we’ll want to go on again and again. Call it American roots music with a driving beat: it kicks back and forth between country and rock like a bucking bronco in a rodeo. Accompanied by old friends and studio musicians, Mel Harker sings and plays his heart out here on five original compositions written while he was performing nearly every night of the week. During his career, Harker has never stopped writing and trying out every song in his enormous original repertoire, tossing the ones that didn’t raise the roof and refining the ones that scored the highest on his internal applause-o-meter. Listen to five of the winners on “What a Way to Go,” and you’ll be calling for an encore!