Rise (Melissa Etheridge album)

Rise is Etheridge's first body of work consisting of all new material since her fifteenth studio album The Medicine Show (2019), and her first studio album overall since One Way Out (2021); it was co-produced by Etheridge and Shooter Jennings and recorded at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles.^[2]

Etheridge described the project as a fusion between rock and country music, explaining that this was the primary reason she selected Jennings as the album's producer. Etheridge stated, "I was looking for a producer who could walk the line between rock and country. I looked at his work and thought, “Oh, yeah.” [I’m a] big fan of [his father] Waylon Jennings. I like that he’s an L.A. guy who’s got this heavy-metal rock background, but is also very rooted in that country-rock sound. We met, talked, and, boy, did we get on. I knew — this is the guy." Of the collaboration with Chris Stapleton, Etheridge expressed that he was the only person she was interested in writing with for the album and asked her manager to reach out despite having never met him. She described it as "thrilling" when Stapleton accepted the offer, and she met him at Dave Cobb's studio in Nashville to work on the song "The Other Side of Blue". The first song she wrote for Rise was "Call You", a song about her grief over the death of her son Beckett in 2020, and expressing that writing through her emotions on that song allowed her to "dig deep into the rest of the album".^[3]

The album's lead single, "Don't You Want a Woman", was released on October 10, 2025; the song also serves as part of a partnership between Etheridge and the Kansas City Current women's soccer team.^[4] The second single, "Matches", was released on December 12, 2025 in tandem with the album announcement.^[5] The third single, "Bein' Alive", was released on February 25, 2026. A music video for the song was released the same day.^[6]

Etheridge will embark on The Rise Tour in promotion of the album, beginning March 26, 2026 in Detroit and concluding on May 9, 2026, in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.^[7]

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.^[8]

• Melissa Etheridge – vocals, guitar, harmonica, production
• Shooter Jennings – synthesizer, piano, production, mixing on all tracks except "The Other Side of Blue", background vocals on "Rise" and "Davina"
• David Spreng – Mellotron, mixing, recording
• Zack Zajdel – engineering assistance
• Nate Haessly – engineering assistance
• Pete Lyman – mastering
• Daniel Bacigalupi – mastering assistance
• Max Hart – guitar, organ, keyboard, piano, pedal steel, lap steel, slide guitar
• Eric Gardner – drums
• Erik Kertes – bass
• Chris Stapleton – vocals and guitar on "The Other Side of Blue"
• Jon Arckey – background vocals on "Rise" and "Davina"
• Shelly Fairchild – background vocals on "Rise" and "Davina"
• Candice Lawler – creative direction, photography
• Julian Gross – design
• Chloe Badawy – styling
• Jill Colwell – hair and makeup