— by Lin McNulty —
Melody Funk was raised in a musical, singing family, so musical, in fact, that when she was growing up, Saturday was considered to be a “singing day;” everyone who was in the house on Saturday was required to sing. It was okay to talk outside, but inside the house, everything had to be sung. “It was fine until I became a teenager and wanted to have friends over on a Saturday. Then it got a bit embarrassing,” sighed Funk.
Born in Montana, she came to Orcas from Seattle and Portland in 1975, where she had performed with Kenny G, to visit her brother Eric Funk and secured a gig in the house band, Sail, at Rosario. She then moved to Seattle in 1980 doing cabaret, mainstage shows, and playing in the Seahawks band.
The first instrument she learned to play was a tenor ukulele. She went on to master the classical guitar, oboe, and, in college, self-taught herself to play piano from music theory classes. Her instrument of choice now is the bass guitar. After losing eight gigs in the Seattle area after 9/11, she moved her musical talent to the high seas, performing on cruise ships for Norwegian (where she was the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Music Director), Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and, her favorite, American West Steamboat Company. She recalls the American West Steamboat vessel being surrounded by the tall cruise ships while docked in Ketchikan.
In addition to the romance of sailing the high seas, it was a difficult life juggling schedules and the 4 – 8 month contracts. “I could get a notification on Wednesday that I had to be in Miami by Saturday morning,” she says.
Following her 10-year cruise line career, and sleeping for two straight weeks, she moved back to Orcas full-time in 2013. She recently connected with Susan Osborn whose childhood vocal coach had been Melody’s mother. “And we used to sign in the church choir together,” she notes.
“Music was like walking” in Melody’s family, and reading music was a prerequisite. All of her siblings went into teaching while Melody pursued performance venues. Her brother Eric is artistic director for the Emmy Award-Winning PBS series 11th & Grant in Montana.
Her father, on family road trips, would assign each of his four children a starting note for singing a song. The notes were each a half-step apart and they would be sing the song, each in their own key, a challenging task. “There we were,” says Melody, “four of us in the back seat singing a half-step apart.”
And now her daughter, Emily Schacher, will be joining her onstage at Random Howse as Melody presents an evening of her original music on October 15, along with the FunkSway band with Bruce Harvie, Lek Thixton, and Randy Jezierski. The performance is at 7 p.m. with no cover charge. Tips are welcome.
Her passion is to write songs for people who have touched her life. Songs written for islanders Tony Lee (“Morning Star”) and Bob Vietzke (“Hugging Bob Shuffle”) are expected to be a highlight in her Random Howse concert. Her daughter will join her in a song written when Emily was six, entitled “Amanda’s Lullaby.”
And, yes, Melody Funk is her given name. Remember, she came from a totally music family.
It is all true. Trips in the car were so much fun. Singing our way to wherever we would be traveling Very few arguments, ’cause if that started, dad would tell them to sing a certain song, each one started in their own assigned note, 1/2 step from the person next to them in the car. We all learned to sing in tune and never make mistakes in the melody. It was the beginning of learning how to sing independently. It was always a music life in our family of 4 kids and 2 adults. Life always started with a capital M. Dear old Dad left for his heavenly place. This Mom is still hanging in there with wonderful memories of a musical family!!
(Edited for clarity and readability.)