- Bubba Brister was my personal favorite. He grew up in Mississippi around jazz, blues, and Southern gospel music, but moved with his family to Green River, WY. That's where he formed the Bubba Brister Band, which performed at local shows. After high school, he joined the gospel group the Revelators. But Brister longed for a solo career and that's how he auditioned for Sing for the World.
He made it to the live shows and had a respectable finish. Brister's unusual style appealed to fans, though, and other than me he had the best post-show debut album sales, with some 5 million sold. "She's Gone" and "Fat Man Sings the Blues" are his hit singles. He now lives on what he calls his "dream farm" in rural Bude, MS, halfway between New Orleans and Jackson. - Melanie (Elaine) MacMelville had the show's most mellifluous name. (According to the dictionary, mellifluous means sweet-sounding.) Her story was also incredible: Although she came from a well-to-do
family - her father worked for a tea-export company and her mother was a master gardener - she regressed to the dark side, dabbling in prostitution as a young adult. MacMelville turned her life around after seeing several friends become HIV positive, with one of them contracting full-blown AIDS and dying. Another one of her friends suggested that she turn to music. The Long Islander became a busker performing on trains, buses, and on the street corners of New York City. MacMelville's inspirational run ended in fourth place, just one episode short of the finale. Her record sales were not as good as the others, but MacMelville filled a niche within the label for both popular top 40 music and as an artist whose work translated into non-American markets. She and her family now operate a cranberry bog in Littleton, MA, about 30 miles northwest of Boston.
(Avatars: Facebook friend Adam Brister from 2002, a young Katherine McPhee)
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