Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge will bring her trademark scorching vocals and intimate lyrics to our backyard for a special concert that’ll be held at 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort.
The performance promises to be a healthy blend of Etheridge classics you’ve known and loved since she first shook up the music scene with her 1988 debut, along with songs from her latest album, “Rise.”
Released this past March, “Rise” marks the 17th studio album for the artist, and the first after enduring the loss of her son to an opioid addiction in 2021. It is winning critical acclaim for its deeply personal lyrics, many of which are drawn from trying to deal with her pain.
That’s not to say “Rise” is a doom-and-gloom pity party. Rather, it’s a story of rising above hard times and moving on. As Etheridge sings in the title track, “You’re gonna fall to earth sometimes. You’re gonna taste the dirt sometimes. Then you’re gonna rise.”
“Rising” is exactly what Etheridge has done throughout a stellar career. She has risen above her own addiction problems. She has risen above a battle with breast cancer. And she has risen above backlash from certain segments of society after coming out as a lesbian in 1993 and becoming a staunch advocate for gay rights.
Etheridge certainly has risen on this writer’s personal playlist since her self-titled debut in 1988, with the rocker “Bring Me Some Water” and the contemplative “Similar Features” on heavy rotation.
The album’s passionate, raw “Like The Way I Do” stands the test of time as a late 1980s stomper. Its sexually and jealousy charged lyrics “…tell me, does she want you, infatuate and haunt you? Does she know just how to shock you, electrify and rock you? Does she inject you, seduce you and affect you, like the way I do?” still induce goosebumps.
Her subsequent albums, “Brave and Crazy” in 1989 and “Never Enough” in 1992, the latter of which included the Grammy Award-winning “Ain’t It Heavy,” solidified her reputation as a smart, gritty musician and a rock ‘n’ roll force to be reckoned with.
The dam broke loose in 1993 with her fourth album, “Yes I Am,” her biggest commercial success to that point on the strengths of monster hits “I’m the Only One” and “Come to My Window,” which netted Etheridge her second Grammy.
Two years later brought her highest charting album to date, “Your Little Secret,” spawning the single “I Want to Come Over” and the title track and helping her earn songwriter of the year honors from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1996.
Although her mainstream popularity began to wane after the 1999 release “Breakdown,” she has remained a staple of the classic rock format while continuing to make new music, including her 2007 Oscar-winning best original song “I Need to Wake Up” from the Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
She also has jumped into new endeavors, penning the memoir “Talking to My Angels,” staging her one-woman Broadway show “Melissa Etheridge: My Window” and founding the Etheridge Foundation to promote plant-based treatments for illness and addiction.
All of this brings us to 2026, her new album “Rise” and her first nomination for entry in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Although she didn’t get the votes this time to score an induction, it’s only a matter of time.
And it’s only a matter of days before she’ll electrify and rock you in Cherokee. For tickets and information, visit caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee/shows.
Here is an archived excerpt from a previous SMN feature on Etheridge conducted by Arts & Entertainment Editor Garret K. Woodward.
Smoky Mountain News: What does the landscape of Melissa Etheridge look like these days? Where are you in your career?
Melissa Etheridge: I’m in a great place, a place where I don’t worry anymore. I’m not looking at charts or radio. I’m just concentrating on my music and that really makes me happy.
I have people that will come see me [perform] that know — when they come to see me, they’re going to have an experience. They’re going to feel better. They’re going to hear the hit songs that they love. They’re going to hear new stuff and they’re going to be entertained and that’s just gold. I keep working on that and it feels really good.
SMN: Well, I would then surmise that there’s really a conscious and subconscious effort to promote positivity and be aware of “the now.”
ME: Absolutely. You hit it right on the nose. That’s what I like to bring. You know, these are trying times, these are times that divide a lot of people and this is an opportunity to really step up and say, “Hey, that’s our strength, that we’re all different.”
It’s a blessing that we’re all different and some people are going to be rubbed the wrong way and that’s OK. You know, we can all still be in the same room and love music and enjoy things.
SMN: Then you must obviously see the importance of the platform that you stand on, in terms of the social responsibility of an artist?
ME: And I would never take advantage of that. People know my lifestyle. They know what I stand for. They know my politics and all that sort of stuff. But, I never bring that into my performance. I let my own personal spirit come through my performance. I speak of love. I speak of unity and strengthening one’s own inner self, because I think the best way to change the world is to start with yourself.
SMN: In terms of where we are in the 21st century, what is the role of the songwriter in our digital world?
ME: We can’t let go of the things that move our soul. And as writers create and speak and reach past the mind and working consciousness of problem solving stuff, we need to always have the balance of the creative, of the inspiring, of the spiritual. And that’s the job. It’s never going to go away — we’re always going to need that.