from Billboard--


Melissa Etheridge Eyeing Fall For New Album



April 13, 2007, 6:10 PM ET

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."

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Product Description
On September 25th, 2007, Melissa will release her 9th studio album, THE AWAKENING. It has been described as a collection of powerful and playful yet confessional and engaging songs that are personal as well as universal. THE AWAKENING was co-produced with David Cole and recorded with her band: bassist Mark Browne, drummer Mauricio ‘Fritz’ Lewak, and guitarist Philip Sayce. Etheridge acknowledges that her 2004 breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment brought new perspective to her life and achievements and freed her to be so open on this album.

1. All There Is
2. California
3. An Unexpected Rain
4. Message To Myself
5. God Is In The People
6. Map Of The Stars
7. Threesome
8. All We Can Really Do
9. I've Loved You Before
10. A Simple Love
11. Heroes And Friends
12. The Kingdom Of Heaven
13. Open Your Mind
14. The Universe Listened
15. Imagine That
16. What Happens Tomorrow

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TKCNQA/?tag=imwan-20

Love her. Hope she 'gets back' to her earlier sound. Was not a fan of SKIN, but LUCKY was a step in the right direction.

from Billbored.com--


Etheridge Sending A 'Message' On New Album


Melissa Etheridge

July 27, 2007, 11:20 AM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Melissa Etheridge's first album in more than three years will arrive in the fall. Due Sept. 25 via Island, "The Awakening" is led by the single "Message to Myself", which goes to U.S. radio outlets on Monday (July 30).

Etheridge has conquered breast cancer since the release of 2004's "Lucky," an experience that has informed the lyrics for the new album.

"When I was on chemotherapy, I listened to all my albums back to back," she told Billboard earlier this year. "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."

Among the other tracks earmarked to appear are "Threesome," "The Universe Listened," "I've Loved You Before," "An Unexpected Rain" and "California."

"The Awakening" 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 ... 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," she said. "When I won the Oscar, it was a huge honor. It was like a sign saying, 'You're doing the right thing.'"

"Billbored"?

A companion release to the Awakening studio album above will be coming out on November 20th ~ it's a CD/DVD set entitled The Awakening Live, featuring Melissa's 2007 concert at New York's Hard Rock Cafe:

(No cover image or tracklisting yet.)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XCZHC6/?tag=imwan-20

You know...I just don't know exactly what it is, but Melissa Etheridge fell off of my radar screen a while ago. I just can't get myself interested in her anymore. I don't suspect she sells much these days either, at least not to anyone except her very fervent core audience.

I wasn't going to buy the new one, especially after how disappointed I was with her last one. Then I was in BB last week, and they played "Message to Myself" from the new one. She pulled me back in again! It's good but not great. Too many what I would call "song links" between the actual tunes. They run about a minute or so each.

Jeff

Interesting comment about Melissa, Walter P. I think it's interesting that when a female singer is lesbian or comes out as a lesbian as Melissa did, that their core audience is only other lesbians--not other women--just lesbians. They seem to lose the heterosexual female and male audience. Juxtapose this with a gay male singer. Elton John declared himself to be gay and his popularity, if it waned at all, waned due to age, not to his being homosexual. A singer like Clay Aiken, who, if he isn't gay, may as well be, he has a huge female following. Ani DiFranco and Melissa do not have this audience and it hurts their careers. I was a big Melissa fan myself until she came out and now it is as if I don't identify with her music anymore. I was thinking of this the other day and just found the differences interesting.

James...first of all, I don't think that her "coming out" had any direct influence on my purchases. It's more a case that the her last couple of releases just didn't appeal to me. My interest began to fade after "Your Little Secret", which I thought was okay, but not as good as her previous releases. After that, I just slowly lost interest in anything she released. I bought them, played them once and then put them aside. I won't be purchasing her latest, because I'm just not interested enough to do so.

I know that she has a very hardcore following, but I don't know that I'd categorize them as entirely lesbian. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't.

Supposing that your assumptions are true though, that women who come out fade and men that come out don't, perhaps there's a reason. I'm not saying that this is true or not, but perhaps more of the women release material that's more directly related to their personal lives and thus something that the broader audience doesn't relate to. This may be something that happens in conjunction with their coming out. I don't know, but it's a thought.

Furthermore, it would appear that all men aren't immune to their careers dying after coming out either. Anyone seen George Michael lately?

I disagree entirely. In '76 Elton was still one of the most popular artists in my HS. He had just come off a #1 single with "Don't Go breaking My Heart", "Here and There" had hit the top 10 album charts, and "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" was climbing the singles chart. Then the interview with Rolling Stone hit the streets, where he admitted his bisexuality. Let me tell you, his popularity sank like a stone at my school because of that article.
Being a big fan, I and a few of my friends, then had to hide our appreciation of him and his music. After all, we are talking the mid-west in the mid-seventies here. Even Elton has stated in interviews that that article is what caused the backlash against him, not his age.

Jeff

Walter P., I am by no means saying the only people who like Melissa Etheridge are lesbians. But I do believe that to be her core audience. During the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" tour, she opened for them and there were quite a few lesbians sporting Melissa concert t-shirts, more than usual to where it was noticable. If my post sounds homophobic in any way, it is unintentional, I couldn't care less what sexual orientation a person is. Others have made valid points of their own following my post. It seems she fell off the radar rapidly but it may be because musically, it just wasn't happening for her, too.

No accusation taken...we're just making conversation and offering up theories.

My only comment is that at some point, I just lost interest. It wasn't a conscious thing...it just happened. I'm betting that her album will have the typical Springsteen effect...big sales right away and then a quick fade. (Although Springsteen's new album is holding on a little longer this time!)

My like/dislike of M.E. has nothing to do with her gayness (which was actually fairly public from almost day 1 to her fans). I've purchased every one of her releases. The last few cd's, I play them once or twice, think they're ok & then never play them again. Her last 3 dvd's are still sitting in my to be played pile, & they're all real dvd's that I purchased.

I suspect that part of the issue is that almost all of the songs on at least her first 3 cd's were about love addiction. Love addiction causes lots of intensity, which sometimes makes for really great music. From her more recent lyrics & some interviews, she appears to have worked through a lot of those issues. Unfortunately, that's when her music started to get kinda boring. That's what the problem is for me with her last few, they're all pretty good but boring.

I'm probably going to wait on these 2 & see if they end up at bmg club.

Most artists do their best work when their in emotional turmoil. Once they find happiness their work gets less edgy, IMO.
A great example of this is Graham Parker. Once he got married and had kids, he had no reason to be the "Angry Young Man" anymore.

Jeff

Dan Fogelberg is another extreme example.

Ugh...here is where I may have to disagree. I love Dan Fogelberg, but "Exiles" was a painfully awful album, yet recorded when he was going through a tough breakup as I recall. The "Exiles" tour was also horrible. He looked distant, uninterested and really wasn't very good.

I agree that Exiles is mediocre. To clarify my point, my understanding is that he got into a permanent relationship just before Innocent Age. While I.A. was his most commercially successful album, to me it was the beginning of his long creative slide downward. The best 2 songs on IA are Another Auld Lang Syne & B side Hearts & Crafts. Both songs were about old girl friends.

Clapton is another (although most will say his downward slide started in the '70's)
He has has some strong records in the past 20 years (August, Journeyman, Unplugged,From the Cradle, heck, I even liked Reptile!), but his last "solo" album "Back Home" reaked of "Im happy being with my wife and kids". I listened to it a couple of times, and filed it away.

Jeff

Well, with Sheryl Crow's break-up with Lance Armstrong, she should be getting back on track then.

While I think Etheridge is fairly talented I'm not a fan in the least and it has nothing to do with her being gay. Her music isn't very good to me. I've seen her twice when she opened for Bruce Hornsby And The Range in 1988 (Bruce and the boys were amazing) and Sting in 1994, and let me tell you, by '94 there were so many lesbians there I thought we were the minority. And this was a Sting show, but there were so many Etheridge "fans" there it was amazing. I wonder if half of them were even fans of the music or just Melissa being gay. So, to a degree I can see where James is coming from, because I've seen it up close. I'd imagine this could turn off her hetero fans, but who knows?
Her set at Live Earth this summer was one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen. She just babbled on endlessly about God knows what in one song for at least 6 or 7 minutes and she was screaming. It was brutal. THAT is why I don't like her music.
As for Elton John, even as a small kid I knew he was gay and I still liked his music then and now. One of my favorite bands of the last 10 years is Placebo who have a gay drummer and a very bi frontman and they're awesome!

Here are the finalised details for The Awakening Live CD/DVD package being released this Tuesday:



On September 25th, 2007, Melissa Etheridge gave her only U.S.performance of her new album, The Awakening. Now, this inspiring,captivating evening is available as part of this unique package. The Awakening LIVE consists of one CD with live versions of all songs on her album and one DVD 9, which includes live concert footage of her one-time performance at The Hard Rock Café in NYC, behind the scenes footage of the making of The Awakening and five videos.

CD:
1. All There Is
2. California
3. An Unexpected Rain
4. Message To Myself
5. God Is In The People
6. Map Of The Stars
7. Threesome
8. All We Can Really Do
9. I've Loved You Before
10. A Simple Love
11. Heroes And Friends
12. The Kingdom Of Heaven
13. Open Your Mind
14. The Universe Listened
15. Imagine That
16. What Happens Tomorrow

DVD:
1. Hard Rock Café NYC concert 2. Prologue & Q&A 3. The Making of The Awakening 4. Message to Myself 5. California 6. Heroes and Friends 7. Threesome 8. Map of the Stars 9. I Need To Wake Up (from the film Inconvenient Truth) 10. Photo Gallery outtakes

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XCZHC6/?tag=imwan-20

What's with this trend with her and others releasing live DVD's of thier current albums? This is the second one she's done like this, the other was for her last CD "Lucky". Bon Jovi's new one is the same, with only a couple of old tracks thrown in. I don't mind new songs on there, but at least add some more older tracks to it,

Jeff