Melissa Etheridge
https://melissaetheridge.com
For more than three decades, Melissa Etheridge has been one of folk-rock's most resonant voices, offering comfort and solace to listeners while also serving as a defiant beacon of hope. The Kansas-born Etheridge initially studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, dropping out to pursue her dreams while playing sets in Southern California's lesbian bars. Etheridge's 1988 self-titled debut--which she recorded in four days--went double-platinum and was hailed widely by critics for its stripped-down take on roots rock, which recalled fellow Midwesterner John Cougar Mellencamp while also channeling the passion of Janis Joplin. Its blues-tinged single "Bring Me Some Water" was nominated for the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy, one of 15 nominations she's received over the course of her career.
One of her two wins was in honor of "Come to My Window," a single from her fourth album 'Yes I Am' that was released after she came out of the closet in 1993. That jangly anthem for self-acceptance, and its stunning video starring Juliette Lewis, remains one of the 1990s' most beloved singles; in 2001 when she performed it at The Concert For New York City the audience happily filled in after a mic glitch left her inaudible, while in 2017 she celebrated Independence Day with a stirring performance fronting the famed orchestra The Boston Pops.
Etheridge's career has been a testament to tenacity and honesty, with her rich, raspy voice making her forthright lyrics land even more powerfully. The bluesy, sultry "Window" follow-up "I'm the Only One" peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100; her 2006 song "I Need to Wake Up," which accompanied the environmentally conscious film 'An Inconvenient Truth,' became the first song from a documentary to win the Best Original Song Oscar, and in 2014 she launched ME Records, her own record label, through which she's released projects like her Stax Records salute 'MEmphis Rock and Soul.' On her forthcoming tour of the U.S. and Europe, Etheridge is celebrating the 25th anniversary of 'Yes I Am'--and a career defined by a willingness to say "yes" to her artistic and personal desires.
Indigo Girls
https://www.indigogirls.com
Across four decades, 16 studio albums, and over 15 million records sold, Indigo Girls continue to blaze the trail for generations of Queer artists in the mainstream. The Grammy-winning duo of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray began their career in clubs and bars around their native Atlanta, GA amidst a blossoming alternative music scene before signing to Epic Records in 1988. Indigo Girls' eponymous major label debut sold over two million copies under the power of singles "Closer to Fine" and "Kid Fears" and introduced the duo's signature harmonies and stirring, sophisticated songs to a dedicated, enduring global audience. Indigo Girls was the first of six consecutive Gold and/or Platinum-certified albums. Their latest record, Look Long, is a heartfelt and eclectic collection of songs that finds the duo reunited in the studio with their strongest backing band to date. "We joke about being old, but what is old when it comes to music? We're still a bar band at heart," says Saliers. "While our lyrics and writing approach may change, our passion for music feels the same as it did when we were 25 years old."
Committed and uncompromising activists, Saliers and Ray work on issues like racial justice and reproductive rights (Project Say Something), immigration reform (El Refugio), LGBTQ advocacy, education (Imagination Library), death penalty reform, and Native American rights (First Peoples Fund).
"As time has gone on, our audience has become more expansive and diverse, giving me a sense of joy," says Saliers. Recently, "Closer to Fine" featured prominently in Greta Gerwig's blockbuster film Barbie and introduced Indigo Girls' music to a new generation of listeners. Released in 2024, their critically-acclaimed documentary Indigo Girls: It's Only Life After All (directed by Alexandria Bombach) blends 40 years of home movies, raw film archive, and intimate present-day verité into a soulful career retrospective. A New York Times Critic's Pick, the documentary premiered opening night at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 and went on to screen at SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, and Hot Docs before releasing to Netflix. A third film, director Tom Gustafson's 2023 jukebox musical Glitter & Doom tells the tale of a whirlwind summer romance through inventive reimaginations of classic Indigo Girls songs. Glitter & Doom boasts a star-studded queer supporting cast featuring Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, Kate Pierson (The B-52s), RuPaul's Drag Race alum Peppermint, and even a cameo from Amy and Emily themselves.
While Rolling Stone describes them as "ideal duet partners," Indigo Girls' live performances aren't so much duets as they are community experiences--massive group singalongs together with their audience. To hear those collective voices raise into one, overpowering the band itself, one realizes the importance Indigo Girls' music has in this moment. In our often-terrifying present, we are all in search of a daily refuge, a stolen hour or two, to engage with something that brings us joy, perspective, or maybe just calm. As one bar band once put it, "We go to the doctor, we go to the mountains...we go to the Bible, we go through the work out." For millions, they go to the Indigo Girls: a creative partnership certain of its bearings, forging a way forward.