STG Presents Melissa Etheridge at The Paramount Theatre in Seattle on Sunday, August 22, 2010.

From our introduction to her in 1988, and throughout her illustrious career, Melissa Etheridge has never forgotten that it all begins with the songs. She has poured everything into those songs and they have served her well.

Those songs—“Bring Me Some Water,” “Ain’t it Heavy,” “I’m the Only One,” “Come to My Window,” “I Want to Come Over,” “Angels Would Fall,” “I Run for Life” and “I Need to Wake Up” among them—have rewarded her with five Platinum albums (including the multi-Platinum sets Melissa Etheridge, Your Little Secret  and the six-million-selling Yes I Am), a pair of Grammys®, an Oscar®, an ASCAP Songwriter of the Year honor and the ASCAP Founders Award.

Easily one of the greatest all-time female rock icons, Melissa Etheridge is also a mother and a cancer survivor. She is an outspoken cultural, political and human rights activist, a thought-provoker and a longtime truth-seeker.

With her latest album, Fearless Love, out now on Island Records, she is at the top of her game.

Fearless Love arrives two and a half years after her autobiographical The Awakening and six years after her battle with breast cancer. At this point, her accomplishments are endless and well-documented. This has allowed Melissa Etheridge to find herself in the enviable position of being able to make exactly the music she hears in her head and feels in her heart. In 2010, that music embodies much of what we’ve come to anticipate from Etheridge—giant, soaring melodies, her bold, expressive voice, plenty of musical, lyrical and emotional drama—and it also embraces a freshness, with the appearance of mandolin and more piano, and guest vocals from Joss Stone and Natasha Bedingfield. Fearless Love offers pounding rockers and whisper-light ballads, and nods to her musical muses are tastefully sprinkled to and fro.

Fearless Love pulls no punches, as it expands the musical and topical boundaries that she has never stopped redrawing.