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Cyrena Wages of Millington, Tennessee, Says She's 'Full of Contradictions.' Her New Album Miss Melancholia Leans In
The former Tennessee pageant contestant turned a Nashville bartending connection into her second album, and she celebrates it in Memphis on Nov. 14.
Cyrena Wages grew up on the country roads between Millington and Shelby Forest, north of Memphis, Tennessee. Now the former teen pageant contestant is back with Miss Melancholia, a second album she says she wrote as "sort of my own armor."
A bar shift that became an album
The new record started behind a bar. "When I lived in Nashville, I bartended for a long time," Wages told the Memphis Flyer. One of her fellow bartenders was Amie Miriello of the band Boys Club for Girls, who introduced her to Johnny Black as a potential songwriting partner. Black went on to produce the album, and the trio's first song together landed hard.
"Oh shit, this is something special," Wages recalled to the Flyer.
The demos they cut together became the album's master tracks. Her summary of the process: "We chased it down."
Contradictions, on purpose
"I think the truest thing I've figured out about myself is that I'm full of contradictions," Wages told the Flyer.
On her website, she describes Miss Melancholia as "swagger, boundaries, levity, fun, and full of a sense of humor." The same bio says she's working to shake off the conditioning of the "Bible Belt beauty pageant" world.
From pageant stage to Memphis soul
As a teen, Wages competed on the Tennessee beauty pageant circuit. She described that life to the Flyer as walking around "with a number on your waist like a show horse."
She spent most of the 2010s in Nashville, including a duo with her brother Houston called the Lost Wages. She came home to make her 2024 debut, Vanity Project, with producer Matt Ross-Spang at his Southern Grooves studio. "Memphis is part of the tapestry of my soul," she told the Flyer in 2024.
She has played The Troubadour, The Bluebird Café and SXSW, according to her bio, and has toured with Lilly Winwood, Hailey Whitters, Maggie Rose and Lucero, per Champagne Breakfast. For the Nov. 14 release show, she's backed by Pat Fusco, Landon Moore, Joe Restivo, Jeremy Stanfill and Shawn Zorn. Fusco, Moore, Restivo and Zorn all played on Vanity Project, according to the Flyer's 2024 coverage.
Where to listen and follow
Visit cyrenawages.com for listening links and vinyl.
Sources
Memphis Flyer — "'I'm Full of Contradictions'"
Memphis Flyer — "Cyrena Wages' Vanity Project: Coming Home to Memphis Soul"
Cyrena Wages — "About"
Cyrena Wages — "Cyrena Wages" (home page)
Champagne Breakfast Music — "Cyrena Wages"
Songkick — "Dash Rip Rock at Hernando's Hide-A-Way" (venue address)