The lady still rocks

By Walter J. Lyng, October 31st, 2012

In the male-dominated pantheon of rock n' roll, it remains to be no small feat for a woman to make it big. After more than 25 years in the industry, however, Melissa Etheridge has gone from making it big to cementing her status as one of the best in the business.
Currently on tour for her new album, 4th Street Feeling, Etheridge will make a stop in Montreal on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Place des Arts. Recently on the phone with The Suburban, the Leavenworth, Kansas native explained how many of the themes of her new album tie in with her middle-America origins.
“It's my own personal journey with my hometown,” she says.
“So much of who I am comes from where I came from. This is one of the first times I've incorporated that part of me so fully into what I was doing. I really remember the dreams I had as a teen in Leavenworth, looking out.”
Although she would eventually leave for greener pastures, she says that with age, her feelings toward the town have changed.
“I think one of the things that propelled me out as a youth was thinking they didn't understand me, but I didn't understand me or know who I was,” she says. “It's the thought that propels you out because it's your home town and you think all these people are against you, but when I look back at it as a person now in my 50s, I'm not judging any teenager or the choices that they're making. It's hard for everyone.”
It was from these humble beginnings that Ethridge's passion for music took form. Often straddling the line between various musical genres herself, she says her early exposure to a mélange of tunes was what essentially shaped her sound.
“When I grew up, the radio station we had played rock n' roll, soul and country,” she says. “I'd hear Led Zeppelin, then Marvin Gaye and then Tammy Wynette. To me, that was just all rock n' roll.”
Touching on elements of folk and country in 4th Street Feeling, Etheridge was introduced to the banjitar, a new instrument prominently featured on various tracks.
“I started out in a country band and I learned how to play the banjo and that was just a fun thing to do,” she says. “Then, in my long illustrious rock n' roll career, I was just never called upon to play the banjo and when I saw over the last couple of years that a lot of these bands that were cropping up were banjo-based, I thought it had finally found its way.
“Right as I went into the studio, my guitar tech asked if I had played the banjitar. It's actually a banjo body but the neck and fingering is like a guitar's, so I didn't have to brush up on my banjo playing. So it's kind of cheating.”
As if to put an exclamation mark on her career, Etheridge is also being honoured this fall by the National Women's Museum of Art in Washington, D.C. and will be included in the exhibition Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power, organized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the museum.
“I think it shows where we've come as a society; that we can loosen up and say 'yeah, there's a certain aspect of rock n' roll that is feminine,'” says Etheridge. “I like to think I was a part of it and we are now able to celebrate that part without a lot of fear.”
Tickets are available at the Place des Arts box office. For more information, visit www.melissaetheridge.com