Every time they take the stage, The Honey Vines perform “Closer to Fine,” the Indigo Girls’ classic 1989 anthem about a search for meaning and truth. It was the first song the pair duetted on, at an open mic night in 2012 at the then-named Lamasco Bar & Grill, and it kickstarted a journey of love and music that the life partners have traveled together since.
Melanie Bozsa and Andrea Wirth bring their own harmonies, warmth, and interpretation to that song, as well as a big bag of other covers from a variety of artists. They have more than two dozen originals, as well. Two of them, “Honest Conversations” and “More Than That,” are available on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and more are on YouTube.
Playing at area restaurants and bars, wineries, and festivals — Haynie’s Corner Arts District’s annual Front Porch Fest is one favorite — The Honey Vines have built a fan base while also inspiring students at the Evansville Music Academy, where they teach guitar, piano, and songwriting. Before that, they owned and operated their own private music studio in Newburgh. Bozsa also taught in the Evansville-Vanderburgh and Warrick County school corporations.
They are known to invite their students — aspiring musicians of all ages — to jam along with them. “We do love opening the stage,” says Wirth, who hails from Oakland City, Indiana. “It’s good for other people to see that somebody can just pop up. And then maybe they think, ‘That might be something I’d like to do too.’”
The Honey Vines recall that they were once students themselves: Inspired by the acoustic riff that opens Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,” Newburgh native Bozsa decided at age 15 to learn guitar and picked up a $99 Fender acoustic at East Side music shop Moore Guitars. The duo has come a long way since: Evansville Living readers named them Best Local Band in 2021 and 2022. They perform around 150 shows a year; two memorable gigs were opening for The Lone Bellow at Spencer County, Indiana’s Lincoln Amphitheatre in 2022 and a 2018 performance at Sarasota, Florida’s Pride festival.
But Bozsa and Wirth are just as happy to sing in more intimate settings, and they keep a busy schedule criss-crossing the region — follow their social media pages to keep up. Along the way, they are padding their list of original songs, “just letting it organically happen,” Bozsa explains. Each Honey Vines performance wraps up with a tune of their own called “Thank You, Goodnight,” a bonding experience for the musicians and their audience. “It’s awesome to see people out there mouthing the words,” Wirth says.
