Melisssa Etheridge "Fearless" Era

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Billboard.com:

Melissa Etheridge Eyeing Fall For New Album

April 13, 2007

Tamara Conniff, L.A.

Melissa Etheridge is eyeing a fourth-quarter release for her next Island album, her first in three years. The set began taking shape around the time Etheridge won the best original song Oscar in February for "I Need To Wake Up," from Al Gore's environmental documentary "I Need To Wake Up."

"I was recording my new album in between rehearsing for the Oscars. So I would record for seven hours, go and rehearse for the Oscars, and then come back and record," the artist tells Billboard. "When I won the Oscar, it was a huge honor. It was like a sign saying, 'You're doing the right thing.'"

Etheridge has conquered breast cancer since the release of 2004's "Lucky," an experience that has informed the lyrics for the as-yet-untitled new project.

"When I was on chemotherapy, I listened to all my albums back to back," she says. "It was therapy for me. I realized what I had been saying to myself in my music -- the things that I would put down that I wouldn't think consciously, but I would think subconsciously. When I started creating this album I asked myself, 'What [would happen] if I create from a subconscious level consciously?' There are very personal things on the album, including one of the greatest love songs I have ever written. These songs are 100% truthful about me and how I am feeling."

On Wednesday (April 18), Etheridge will be honored with the ASCAP Founders Award during the 24th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The award ceremony is part of ASCAP's "I Create Music Week" to celebrate songwriters and music-makers.

"I have never had an honor like this where folks get up and pay tribute," she says. "It makes me feel like I'm old, but as long as everyone knows I'm at a halfway point, then it's good. I have been on the other side. I have paid tribute to many artists, so it is a big honor."

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I wrote a short paper on why Melissa Etheridge should be included in the rock'n roll era & beyond course I just took at university, with emphasis on the song 'Come To My Window'. She was at the headway of female rockers doing it on their own at a time when mainstream music and rock in general was still very male oriented, and she had come out as being a lesbian before the album came out yet it went on to be huge which is quite a big deal. I've come to respect and really like Melissa recently so I'm definately looking forward to this album. I think artists like her and Sheryl Crow are today's examples of who will be considered legends of the 90s and 00s.

Maybe not legends but you know what I mean. ;)

[MusicMan88]

^^I actually think that Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge will be considered legends in a few decades from now. They are both consistent and create some of the best pop-rock out there, and that is totally disregarding their gender. They're staples in rock music.

[werk]

I generally like her. Sometimes her material could be better, but she always has at least a couple singles I like per album. Her voice is killer and one of the better rock voices (male or female) out there. The last studio album was underrated and deserved better than it got. I liked her cover of "Breathe" better than the original from Greenwheel and the title track is one of my favorite songs from her period.

I don't know that she'll ever be really commercially successful again though. Her Greatest Hits album didn't do particularly well and none of the singles broke through in a big way.

[K.]

areyoureadytojump said:

Billboard.com:

Melissa Etheridge Eyeing Fall For New Album

April 13, 2007

Tamara Conniff, L.A.

Melissa Etheridge is eyeing a fourth-quarter release for her next Island album, her first in three years. The set began taking shape around the time Etheridge won the best original song Oscar in February for "I Need To Wake Up," from Al Gore's environmental documentary "I Need To Wake Up."

"I was recording my new album in between rehearsing for the Oscars. So I would record for seven hours, go and rehearse for the Oscars, and then come back and record," the artist tells Billboard. "When I won the Oscar, it was a huge honor. It was like a sign saying, 'You're doing the right thing.'"

Etheridge has conquered breast cancer since the release of 2004's "Lucky," an experience that has informed the lyrics for the as-yet-untitled new project.

"When I was on chemotherapy, I listened to all my albums back to back," she says. "It was therapy for me. I realized what I had been saying to myself in my music -- the things that I would put down that I wouldn't think consciously, but I would think subconsciously. When I started creating this album I asked myself, 'What [would happen] if I create from a subconscious level consciously?' There are very personal things on the album, including one of the greatest love songs I have ever written. These songs are 100% truthful about me and how I am feeling."

On Wednesday (April 18), Etheridge will be honored with the ASCAP Founders Award during the 24th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The award ceremony is part of ASCAP's "I Create Music Week" to celebrate songwriters and music-makers.

"I have never had an honor like this where folks get up and pay tribute," she says. "It makes me feel like I'm old, but as long as everyone knows I'm at a halfway point, then it's good. I have been on the other side. I have paid tribute to many artists, so it is a big honor."

Wow, I'm really excited. Melissa is one of the geniuses of music. True legend. The greatest love song she has ever written? Bring it on!

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

werk said:

I don't know that she'll ever be really commercially successful again though. Her Greatest Hits album didn't do particularly well and none of the singles broke through in a big way.

I got her GHs last year when it was on for $6.99. I don't know why HMV would have it for so cheap since the week later it was like $22.99 or something so I'm wondering if it was an error. Aw well, it was worth it. I'd have redone the tracklisting a bit to include 'Breathe' and 'I Want To Be In Love', even though the latter is probably too poppy to associate with Melissa's other stuff but alas, I super loved it! I think they completely skipped over that album for the GHs.

[areyoureadytojump]

On sale today in the USA!!

Target: $11.98
Best Buy: $9.99
Circuit City: $9.99

[areyoureadytojump]

Mod, please move to the Artists section.

Thanks!

[WotUNeed]

themaxonline said:

werk said:

I don't know that she'll ever be really commercially successful again though. Her Greatest Hits album didn't do particularly well and none of the singles broke through in a big way.

I got her GHs last year when it was on for $6.99. I don't know why HMV would have it for so cheap since the week later it was like $22.99 or something so I'm wondering if it was an error. Aw well, it was worth it. I'd have redone the tracklisting a bit to include 'Breathe' and 'I Want To Be In Love', even though the latter is probably too poppy to associate with Melissa's other stuff but alas, I super loved it! I think they completely skipped over that album for the GHs.

I bought GH album but quickly resold it, as almost every song on there was in a version other than what I remember actually hearing.

Hope this album sells reasonably well. I think "Message to Myself" is my favorite single she's released in the 2000's.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Yeah, 'I'm The Only One' was the radio edit and 'Come To My Window' didn't include the intro.

I got this CD today. Listening to it now. I'm hoping there's a few gems on it! I'm actually not a fan of 'Message to Myself'.

[cloudbug2]

I THINK I heard her new single at the grocery store tonight. It was a song about running for life. I had never heard it and love it. off to buy her new CD.

[reception]

Melissa Etheridge Calls Twins a 'Whole Different Ball of Wax'
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2007 09:05 AM EDT

By Diane Herbst

Melissa Etheridge had already been raising two children, so she was no novice parent when her twins were born last October.

But the new additions, she tells PEOPLE, have turned out to be "a whole different ball of wax."

"They have their own language, they are more content to be with each other. With twins, it's like you're in their life," she says of her 11-month-old son Miller Steven and daughter Johnnie Rose.

Etheridge, 46, and partner Tammy Lynn Etheridge, 32, conceived the twins via artificial insemination, and Tammy carried the babies. Melissa also has two children from a previous relationship with Julie Cypher: daughter Bailey Jean, 10, and son Beckett, 8.

Speaking before a concert at Hard Rock Cafe New York on Tuesday - to kick off a breast cancer awareness campaign called "Rocktober" and to launch her new album The Awakening - Etheridge says that although she already had a boy and a girl, the twins made evident inherent gender differences.

"I used to think it was society but no, no, no," she says, laughing. "You can put the same thing in front of both of (the twins) and they will do completely different things. He will see if he can break it, if he can throw it, and she is going to contemplate it, see how she can manipulate it."

Plus, with twins, she says, "Even their relationship to each parent is different because they have a relationship with each other at first."

Etheridge, diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, says her health now is excellent. Her head, made bald by chemotherapy, is now covered with blonde, shoulder-length hair.

"It's an interesting experience to walk through life and have people burst into tears," says Etheridge. "The experience of breast cancer, or cancer in general, everybody knows somebody who has had cancer, it's always there. Everybody has that story."

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

cloudbug2 said:

I THINK I heard her new single at the grocery store tonight. It was a song about running for life. I had never heard it and love it. off to buy her new CD.

That came out in 2005. It was a song she wrote about surviving breast cancer and proceeds from the single went toward research. It also appeared on her GHs. It's called 'I Run For Life'.

I'm not sure how I feel about this new CD though. The songs blend together actually, as if it's just one long song...

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Billboard.biz:

Rocker Melissa Etheridge, who has been charting albums for the past 19 years, notches her 10th top 40 set on The Billboard 200 as "Awakening" debuts at No. 13 with 48,000. Etheridge's self-titled debut bowed on The Billboard 200 in June 1988 at No. 179.

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10/20 chart

28 ETHERIDGE*MELISSA AWAKENING 24,423 47,702 -49% 72,187

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11/17 chart

125 MELISSA ETHERIDGE AWAKENING 6,154 5,530 +11% 112,011

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11/29/08 charts:

195 NEW ETHERIDGE*MELISSA NEW THOUGHT FOR CHRISTMAS 3,612 +96% 1,842 12,336

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Out today!

Target $9.99
Best Buy $7.99

[SHOOTER]

1. Fearless Love
2. The Wanting of You
3. Company
4. Miss California
5. Drag Me Away
6. Indiana
7. Nervous
8. Heaven on Earth
9. We Are the Ones
10. Only Love
11. To Be Loved
12. Gently We Row

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SOUNDSCAN (WEEK ENDING 5/2/10)

Other Debuts
7) Melissa Etheridge – Fearless Love – 46,309

[Samer]

"The Wanting of You" is epic, classic, smash!!! Send it to pop radio. I don't know if radio will be lesbian-tolerant enough but she should try anyway... I can't stop listening to this track!

[esoteric76]

Oct 15, 2010 9:10:02 GMT -5 Samer said:

"The Wanting of You" is epic, classic, smash!!! Send it to pop radio. I don't know if radio will be lesbian-tolerant enough but she should try anyway... I can't stop listening to this track!

This whole album is the most radio friendly crop of songs she's given us in a decade, there's nothing to skip over.
"Indiana" is my absolute favorite, and she KILLS "We Are The Ones" in concert. I'd love for The Wanting of You to succeed, just to get more people to hear this great album.