Bayside Melissa

I'm Not Broken is a 12-track live performance album of Melissa's hits, plus a brand-new track she wrote specifically for the project. The record will be released in tandem with a two-part limited series for Paramount+ centered around Melissa Etheredge putting on a concert in a women's prison in Kansas. Melissa is originally from Leavenworth, Kansas and grew up playing shows in the prisons in her hometown before becoming a full-blown rock star, award-winning musician, celebrity, and activist. This project is about coming home to your roots, redemption, and the healing power of music. It will be released via Sun Records, a perfect home in line with Johnny Cash's iconic "Live From Folsom Prison" record.

I'm Not Broken is a 12-track live performance album of Melissa's hits, plus a brand-new track she wrote specifically for the project. The record will be released in tandem with a two-part limited series for Paramount+ centered around Melissa Etheredge putting on a concert in a women's prison in Kansas. Melissa is originally from Leavenworth, Kansas and grew up playing shows in the prisons in her hometown before becoming a full-blown rock star, award-winning musician, celebrity, and activist. This project is about coming home to your roots, redemption, and the healing power of music. It will be released via Sun Records, a perfect home in line with Johnny Cash's iconic "Live From Folsom Prison" record.

Melissa Etheridge wasn't out of the closet when she released Yes I Am in 1993, yet it's hard not to notice the defiant acclamation in the album's title. This barely concealed sense of sexual identity seeps out from the lyrics, and it informs the music as well, which is perhaps the most confident she has ever been. It's also the most professional she's ever been (perhaps not a coincidence), as she belts out these unapologetically anthemic numbers with a sense of finesse that's suited to lifestyle newspaper pages, not rock & roll, thereby setting herself up for her bout with celebrity during the second half of the '90s. Yes I Am wouldn't have been as convincing if it wasn't so slick, though; her Springsteen-isms and Janis tributes are tempered by songs that work as album rock favorites, even if they aren't as epic or passionate as their inspirations. She may not have songs as great as she did the first time out – "Somebody Bring Me Some Water" remains her finest moment – but she has a sense of purpose and identity that suits her well.