RISE, out March 27, 2026, was Melissa Etheridge's first full set of new songs since The Medicine Show in 2019, and she made it at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles with Shooter Jennings co-producing. Chris Stapleton co-wrote and sings on "The Other Side of Blue." "Matches" goes back to being eight years old and a Johnny Cash fan when Cash played the Leavenworth prison in 1970. "Call You" is for her son Beckett, who died of opioid addiction in 2020 at 21.
Leavenworth is home. She finished high school there in 1979, left Berklee after three semesters, and signed with Island Records in 1986; her self-titled 1988 debut had "Bring Me Some Water" on it. Grammys followed for "Ain't It Heavy" and "Come to My Window," and in 2007 she won an Oscar for "I Need to Wake Up," written for An Inconvenient Truth.
The Topeka Correctional Facility runs through her recent work. She spent time with women there for I'm Not Broken, a two-part Paramount+ docuseries from 2024, and put out a live album recorded at the prison. Kansas gave her its Governor's Arts Award in March 2025.