Lucy Mellenfield, the remarkable young jazz-folk singer-songwriter, releases her stunning debut album 'Tell The Water, She Will Listen' with Birmingham’s Stoney Lane Records this coming January 16 – a poignant and original studio recording drawing on fragility, love, loss and the turmoil of society over the last five years.
Produced by Chris Hyson (Snowpoet, Jordan Rakei), ‘Tell The Water, She Will Listen’ draws on jazz and folk, interweaving improvisation and folk melodies with immersive soundscapes and vivid lyric writing. The roots of the music sparked out of the darkness of early 2020 alongside Lucy’s move to Birmingham, discovering a whole new community of musicians and lifelong friends. As well as writing and singing all of the songs on her new album, Lucy also plays grand piano, upright piano, rhodes, keyboards, synths and acoustic guitar.
“Tell the Water, She Will Listen is an album that pinpoints moments in my early twenties where I have been at my most vulnerable”, Lucy describes. “I have faced fears, battled with relationships, fallen in love, seen loved ones suffer, revisited childhood trauma, experienced health scares, and have raised questions about the frightening society we live in. For me, songs are a saving grace. They unravel this scroll of feelings and thoughts that would otherwise linger in knots within me”.
First single from the album ‘Like A Feather’ is out now.
‘Like a Feather’ channels coping with family conflict, drawing upon the trials and tribulations of divorce. The lyrics describe choosing teams, swaying from one side to the other. “As a child, there is burning hope that one day things will resolve, however upon reaching adulthood, you learn to live with a pain that may always exist,” Lucy recalls. The feather is a symbol of fragility: a theme which echoes throughout the album.
‘Tell the Water, She Will Listen’ is released on 16th January 2026 on CD and all digital platforms with Stoney Lane Records.