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Melissa Etheridge On Music and Politics

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We talk with legendary rocker Melissa Etheridge.

Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge

Country-tinged, big sound roots rocker Melissa Etheridge hit it big and early with “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One.”  There was something irresistible in her candid, raspy passion and longing.  She lived the same way.  Out there.  As gay.  As a cancer fighter and survivor.  She sang Janis Joplin bald at the Grammy’s.  Undaunted.  She’s out again now, in a new age of music.  This hour, On Point:  we’re live in the studio with the one and only Melissa Etheridge.
- Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Melissa Etheridge, singer-songwriter, two-time Grammy winner. Her new album “This is ME” is out in September. (Currently you can pre-order through her fan club, the Melissa Etheridge Information Network. The general public pre-order on her web-site starts August 8th.) (@metheridge)

From Tom's Reading List

San Francisco Weekly: Yes She Can: At 53, Melissa Etheridge Isn't Taking It Easy -- "Melissa Etheridge's career exceeded expectations even before she was a household name. Though she wanted to sign with female-focused indie label Olivia Records, its rejection eventually led her to press on and find a home at Island, the significantly more prestigious major that released her eponymous debut in 1988. In 1993, Etheridge's confessional, country-tinged rock found crossover fame with hit singles like "Come to My Window," from the six-times platinum Yes I Am. That alone is no small feat, yet Etheridge parlayed this success into the kind of durable mega-stardom that eludes many."

Lehigh Valley Music: Interviewing Melissa Etheridge — "I collaborated with a bunch more people than I normally do. I’ve spent the last three months traveling around and writing and recording with all kinds of different people – everybody from Jerry “Wonda”[Duplessis]  from The Fugees to … today, I’m working with [multi-platinum music producer and writer] Matt Squire [who has produced, engineered or written tracks for Kesha, Demi Lovato, One Direction and others], who did Panic at the Disco.”

People Magazine: Melissa Etheridge Weds Linda Wallem — "In the course of the intimate outdoor ceremony, Etheridge sang Wallem a new song she wrote especially for her and which Etheridge had never performed before – not even to Wallem. "It was such a magical moment," says the guest, who added that Etheridge wore a grey suit, while Wallem was in a white dress."

Melissa Performs in our Studio!

This program aired on August 6, 2014.

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