They Said It!
--Mike Joyce, Washington Post
“Tom Meltzer writes songs Merle Haggard might have written if he'd gotten mugged under the Williamsburg Bridge one rainy night...”
--Mark Jacobson, Esquire
“Uncommonly clever lyrics, a mixture of precisely tuned observations and snappy two-liners.”
--Jon Pareles, New York Times
“Tom Meltzer is a witty obsessive who translates his insecurities into comical appreciations of baseball, women, Brooklyn, Cubism, family and Neil Young.”
--Ira Robbins, Trouser Press
“Tom Meltzer's open, friendly voice personifies the slightly weird boy next door.”
--Dirty Linen
“Meltzer is a step above really good... His songs really stay with me.”
--Dave Beltrane, Dirty Linen
Singer Songwriter Beggarman Thief review: “An eclectic amalgam of folk, country, rock and soul, accented by the highly developed songwriting skills of Tom Meltzer and Paul Foglino and a shrewd sense of humor.”
--Jim Caligiuri, CMJ Country
“Paul Foglino and Tom Meltzer have got most of the tunemeisters on Music Row eating their dust.”
--Philip Van Vleck, Raleigh Spectator, July 11, 1995
“You are brilliant and wonderful.”
--Nora Ephron, rejection letter for soundtrack music
Biography
Tom Meltzer has been writing and performing his songs for over 40 years. His first recorded composition, "Paul Cezanne" (The Special Guests) made The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau's best singles list for 1985 and his best videos list for 1986.
The Special Guests, for whom Meltzer played guitar and sang lead, evolved into 5 Chinese Brothers, a New York City-based roots/Americana/alt.country band. 5 Chinese Brothers released four critically acclaimed albums, toured the United States, Canada, and Europe, and appeared on various radio and television programs, including Country Countdown With Travis Tritt on VH1, The World Cafe with David Dye, Mountain Stage, and Horses Sing None of It. The band broke up in 1999.
After relocating to the Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, Meltzer released occasional songs on compilation records (various volumes of Sound Asleep Records' Hit the Hay series, 40 Years (!!!) of Bear Family Records), both as a solo artist and with a band. These bands included Meltzer-Hart, The Frosted Sugar Bombs, The Banana Seats, and The Nashvilifiers. He also produced a Schoolhouse Rock-like podcast for The Princeton Review, entitled The Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute. Approximately 120 episodes of this podcast exist somewhere in the ether.
Nice Things is Meltzer's first solo album. It was recorded at home on GarageBand in January, February, and March of 2026, using an AudioTechnica 4033a microphone, a FocusRite Scarlet Solo interface, and a MacBook Air. Meltzer sang all vocal parts and played all the instruments. The album was released on May 1, 2026.