As Melissa Etheridge prepares to return to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Sunday, she’s bringing more than a catalog of hits. She’s bringing a tribute to the medium that first connected her to music.
Etheridge and country star Wynonna Judd are touring together on the Raised on Radio Tour, a celebration of the songs, artists and radio stations that shaped their lives long before either became a household name.
“Radio was a big, big part of my life, my childhood, my adulthood. It was where I wanted to be.” Etheridge said. “It’s where I heard all my favorite artists. It’s where I learned about music, about the music I love.”
The tour’s title reflects that connection. Etheridge said audiences can expect an evening built around the songs that made both performers stars.
“They can expect to have a good time and hear the songs that they heard on the radio back maybe a couple decades ago,” she said. “Wynonna and I, we love playing live, but we love playing our hits for everybody that was there in the ’90s and those that have found the music since.”
The tour follows the release of Etheridge’s latest album, Rise, produced by Shooter Jennings and featuring a collaboration with Chris Stapleton. While known primarily as a rock artist, Etheridge said country music has always been part of her musical DNA.
“I grew up with country music and the first bands I played in were country,” she said. “And then I really leaned into the rock and roll side.”
She sees fewer divisions between the genres today.
“I feel like country music kind of — the music I hear on country stations — are kind of what I heard in the ’90s on the pop stations,” Etheridge said. “I feel like we’ve kind of moved closer together.”
Her enthusiasm extends beyond music. A longtime supporter of women’s sports, Etheridge has become a vocal fan of the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League.
“When the team came to Kansas City and the owners built the first stadium dedicated to women’s sports, I just said, ‘I’ve got to get behind this,'” she said.
The connection is personal. While discussing her support for women’s soccer, Etheridge recalled that one of her earliest breaks in the music business also came through the sport.
“When I was playing in Pasadena, the girls that played on the college team there, the Cal Tech team, they would come in on Sundays,” she said. One of the coaches’ husbands was a music manager. After repeated encouragement from the players, he came to hear her perform and eventually became her first manager.
“So yeah, one of my first breaks came from soccer,” she said.
Sunday’s concert will also bring Etheridge back to a venue steeped in music history. Bethel Woods sits on the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair, and Etheridge said she feels that legacy every time she performs there.
“I have a deep belief that that stuff stays around,” she said. “Especially the Woodstock connection.”
Etheridge said she makes a point of revisiting the site’s exhibits and history whenever she returns.
“The history and that music can and did and does change society, changes the world,” she said. “I love being part of that.”
Image: Grammy-winning musician Melissa Etheridge is hitting the road this summer with Wynonna Judd for the Raised On Radio Tour, makes a stop at Bethel Woods on Sunday. (melissaetheridge.com)
Note: Bethel Woods is a financial supporter of Radio Catskill.