Melissa Etheridge - Fearless Love CD Review

Melissa Etheridge made a welcome return to her rock roots with her 11th disc Fearless Love.

Producer/guitarist John Shanks has given Melissa Etheridge a BIG sound with a disc full of anthemic melodies, crashing drums and soaring guitar riffs. To make Fearless Love, Etheridge invited old friend John Shanks to produce and play guitar. “I like to tell people I discovered John Shanks,” she teases. “He toured as my guitar player on my very first tour and he worked with me from 1993 to 1999.”

Lyrically, this is Melissa's breakup album as she split with long-time partner Tammy Lynn Michaels shortly before this disc was released. In a recent interview, Melissa described the meaning of the album title as being "about being fearless. It's about choosing love over fear. It's a way, a philosophy of living life that suits me well."



Lyrical themes predominately focus on different aspects of relationships - love, loss and redemption:
- "Fearless Love" - "I want a fearless love, I won't settle for anything less / If you can’t hold me now, you’ll never hold me again”
- "Company" - "And all I want is company / Someone to understand this misery / Send a reflection of myself to me"

Melissa keeps the tempos moving from fist-pumping arena rock (with heavy shades of Bruce Springsteen) to Tom Petty-flavored roots rock. There is even a blues-rock (Great White/LA Guns style) guitar-driven hard rock song - "Nervous". Things get a bit more mixed up toward the end of the disc on tracks like "We Are The Ones", which has a middle-eastern feel, syncopated percussion and backing vocals by Natasha Bedingfeld & Joss Stone. The last three songs on the disc unfortunately are a stylistic break and are slow (somewhat unmemorable) introspective ballads.

Melissa is currently out on tour and she is playing a couple NYC-area shows in July:

July 14, 2010 - The United Palace Theatre, NYC
July 16, 2010 - State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ

Links:
Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge's New CD, "Fearless Love", Available on Amazon as a $3.99 Download

Melissa Etheridge makes a welcome return to her rock roots with her 11th disc Fearless Love. The new disc came out this past Tuesday and is available as a digital download from Amazon.com for $3.99.

Melissa Etheridge’s new single, “Fearless Love,” a bold and soaring declaration for living - and loving - to the fullest, has struck a momentous chord as it soars inside the Top 30 this week on the Hot AC chart, and rises to #10 on the Triple A chart.



To make Fearless Love, Etheridge invited old friend John Shanks to produce and play guitar. “I like to tell people I discovered John Shanks,” she teases. “He toured as my guitar player on my very first tour and he worked with me from 1993 to 1999.” Shanks’ first production credit came when he co-produced Melissa’s 1999 effort, Breakdown. “ “After that he went on to produce Michelle Branch, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette—he’s Mr. Pop guy now. He’s done quite well,” Notes Etheridge. The 2005 Grammy® winner for Producer of the Year has written with and produced an A+ list of stars including Carlos Santana, Celine Dion, Sting, Fleetwood Mac, Bon Jovi, Jewel, Robbie Robertson, Chris Isaak, Stevie Nicks, Keith Urban, Kelly Clarkson and Rod Stewart.

To promote the new disc, Melissa is making the round of network TV shows. Upcoming appearances include:

Apr 30 - Good Morning America ABC
Apr 30 - The View ABC
May 04 – Ellen

Links:
Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge Releases 11th Album, Fearless Love, on April 27th

Melissa Etheridge hit the East Coast in 1989 after the release of her self-titled debut and quickly built a reputation for her raw, high-energy rock n' roll shows that were one part Janis Joplin and one part Bruce Springsteen. As I dated women who thought there was music out there other than hardcore and alt-rock, I saw Melissa Etheridge a few times in the late 80's through mid 90's as she moved from club shows to headlining large amphitheaters. I lost touch with what Melissa was doing after the mid-90's but, what I heard in passing of her later-day material, struck me as "adult contemporary" (i.e. pure schmaltz).

Melissa's new album, Fearless Love, which comes out on April 27th, marks a welcome return to her roots-rock sounds of the early 90's. Check out the live video for the title cut and try not to think of Springsteen while watching.



To make Fearless Love, Etheridge invited old friend John Shanks to produce and play guitar. “I like to tell people I discovered John Shanks,” she teases. “He toured as my guitar player on my very first tour and he worked with me from 1993 to 1999.” Shanks’ first production credit came when he co-produced Melissa’s 1999 effort, Breakdown. “ “After that he went on to produce Michelle Branch, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette—he’s Mr. Pop guy now. He’s done quite well,” Notes Etheridge. The 2005 Grammy® winner for Producer of the Year has written with and produced an A+ list of stars including Carlos Santana, Celine Dion, Sting, Fleetwood Mac, Bon Jovi, Jewel, Robbie Robertson, Chris Isaak, Stevie Nicks, Keith Urban, Kelly Clarkson and Rod Stewart.

The first new song [from Fearless Love], a dramatic number called “To be Loved,” came out much darker than the album as a whole. As more songs were written, potential singles began to emerge: “Indiana,” a ballad-cum-monster-of-a-rocker that relates the story of a girl who has overcome a difficult childhood in the Heartland; “The Wanting of You,” a classic Etheridge rocker based on the story of a small-town, Midwestern girl who lives in fear of the life-changing choices she’s made; and “Company,” a mid-tempo rocker that will all undoubtedly amass plenty of airplay in 2010. The big Pete Townshend-inspired power chords in “Company” are an example of Etheridge’s propensity for proudly displaying her influences on Fearless Love; listen carefully and you’ll hear a U2-like guitar line here, a ZZ Top-like lick there, some Led Zeppelin-style rock for all to hear. “I wanted to unabashedly use the influences I’ve had all my life,” Etheridge explains, “I wanted to present them in this album, and honor them and respect them.”

Amazon is taking pre-orders for Fearless Love (click on the photo above) for $7.99 and the first two singles ("Fearless Love" and "The Wanting of You") are currently available on iTunes.

Melissa is playing a limited set of live dates over the next few months:

May 22, 2010 -- KFOG’s KaBoom @ Candlestick Point San Francisco, California
Jun 26, 2010 -- Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park with Stevie Wonder, London
Jun 27, 2010 -- Paradiso, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland
Jun 29, 2010 -- O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
Jun 30, 2010 -- Astra Kulturhaus, Berlin

Links:
Melissa Etheridge

Nikki Shannon - Live Video from Show @ National Underground, NYC 10/10/08

Nikki Shannon played about an hour set at The National Underground last Friday night to an enthusiastic crowd and full room. I taped part of the show and clip below contains the songs "Had It With You" (non-LP cut; unsure that this is the 'real' title) and "Chocolate & Wine".



Nikki has been playing around town in support of her debut CD, Too Few, which was released earlier this year. The new disc is available through all of the major online digital music sites (itunes, Rhapsody, Napster, E-Music, and Amazon) and physical copies of the disc can be ordered through Nikki's MySpace page.

Steve Matteo (contributor for the New York Times, LA Times, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, Spin, and Details) described Too Few as "just the right touches of harmonies and subtle instrumental accentuations, may at first recall such great talents as Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde, and Joni Mitchell vocally and in her songwriting...yet in the end Nikki has a sound all her own." In addition to earning strong reviews from the critics, Nikki has had songs featured on "Six Degrees" (ABC TV) and she announced at last Friday's show that the song "Beauty Is Gone" will be featured on an upcoming episode of "The Hills".

Here are Nikki's upcoming shows:
Oct 22, 2008, 9:00PM, Mexacali Blues, Teaneck, New Jersey
Nov 2, 2008 8:00AM (time and place TBD), NYC MARATHON, NYC