Melissa

Everyone has one (or several) of those artists... Someone who you continue to follow even though you'd never recommend their new album to a friend. But for some reason you still keep tabs on them, whether it's be because you were listening to them during a transitional time in your life, or you're just a completionist and try to have everything from a particular artist. Or maybe I'm just telling my own story and you can't relate at all. Whatever. I'm still glad to see that Melissa Etheridge is going to be giving up on writing popular material. She's been such a SNOOZEFEST this past decade. Her early stuff was great, and I think that's what kept me following her all these years (and other reasons stated above). :-)

Melissa Etheridge Returns to “Slamming” Rock on March LP “Fearless Love”

Melissa Etheridge had a simple message when she met with producer John Shanks to discuss her next album. “I told him that I wanted to make a record that’s a hundred miles an hour all the time — unabashedly drawing from my all of my influences,” she says. “What we’ve done rocks harder than I’ve rocked in years. There’s a couple of ballads on it, but the majority of it is just really slamming.” The disc — Fearless Love — is due in March, with the debut single (also called “Fearless Love”) coming out in January.

Shanks, who has worked with everybody from Ashlee Simpson to Bon Jovi, began his career as Etheridge’s guitar player more than 20 years ago. “He likes to say I discovered him at [L.A. punk club] Madam Wong’s,” says Etheridge. “That’s where I first heard him play.” On Fearless Love, Etheridge says she is no longer trying to write pop hits for the radio. “I can’t play that game anymore,” she says. “You can’t win because if you sound like you are trying to write a pop song nobody likes you.”

[From Melissa Etheridge Returns to “Slamming” Rock on March LP “Fearless Love” : Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily]