Heartstrings: Melissa Etheridge and Her Guitars

Heartstrings Melissa Etheridge and Her Guitars tells the singer’s stories through each of her legendary instruments. Each chapter features a different one of her guitars each of which is named after a significant woman in history 

Melissa Etheridge’s Heartstrings takes you on a journey through her growth and life as a musician, as it reveals the untold stories behind some of her favorite guitars - each one of them exciting, significant, and dear to her heart and music.

Melissa Etheridge stormed onto the American rock scene in 1988 with the release of her critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, which led to an appearance on the 1989 Grammy Awards show. For several years, her popularity grew around such memorable originals as "Bring Me Some Water," "No Souvenirs" and "Ain't It Heavy," for which she won a Grammy® in 1992. Etheridge hit her commercial and artistic stride with her fourth album, Yes I Am (1993). The collection featured the massive hits, "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window," a searing song of longing that brought Etheridge her second Grammy® Award for Best Female Rock Performance. In 1995, Etheridge issued her highest charting album, Your Little Secret, which was distinguished by the hit single, "I Want to Come Over." Her astounding success that year led to Etheridge receiving the Songwriter of the Year honor at the ASCAP Pop Awards in 1996. 

Known for her confessional lyrics and raspy, smoky vocals, Etheridge has remained one of America’s favorite female singer-songwriters for more than two decades. In February 2007, Melissa Etheridge celebrated a career milestone with a victory in the “Best Song” category at the Academy® Awards for “I Need to Wake Up,” written for the Al Gore documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. As a performer and songwriter, Etheridge has shown herself to be an artist who has never allowed “inconvenient truths” to keep her down. Earlier in her recording career, Etheridge acknowledged her sexual orientation when it was considered less than prudent to do so. In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, a health battle that, with her typical tenacity, she won. Despite losing her hair from chemotherapy, Etheridge appeared on the 2005 Grammy® telecast to sing “Piece of My Heart” in tribute to Janis Joplin. By doing so she gave hope to many women afflicted with the disease. 

On October 7, 2016 Melissa Etheridge released Memphis Rock & Soul, her first album since 2014’s critically lauded This Is M.E. Recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, the album received stellar reviews from the likes of Entertainment Weekly, Parade, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter and more. She followed that up with the release of The Medicine Show in April, 2019. For The Medicine Show, Melissa reunited with celebrated producer John Shanks and sounds as rousing as ever, bringing a new level of artistry to her 15th studio recording. The Medicine Show deals with universal themes of renewal, reconciliation, reckoning, compassion and, most profoundly, healing. 

In June of 2020, Etheridge launched her own live streaming subscription and single ticket concert platform, Etheridge TV and has done over 200 live streams in 2020.

On September 17, 2021, Melissa released a new album called One Way Out. The 9-track album is a collection of songs Etheridge wrote in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s that never made the cut….until now! The time is finally right, and fans will finally get a deeper glimpse to who Melissa was then.

About Frank Marraffino:
Frank Marraffino’s credits include the graphic novels Heartstrings: Melissa Etheridge
and Her Guitars and The Final Symphony: A Beethoven Anthology from Z2 Comics. For
Marvel Comics, Frank unearthed undead superheroes in Marvel Zombies Supreme and
Marvel Zombies Destroy. He wrote about the cyclical romp and ravage of war in
DC/Vertigo’s Haunted Tank, which Comic Vine listed as the best DC book of the year.
Even though it was created in the states, Frank’s monsters and mystery mash-up The
Dark Goodbye was named as one of the 10 best manga of the year by Play Magazine.
Frank is also the Head Projectionist at New York’s famous Radio City Music Hall, where
he has had the good fortune to experience the best musicians in the world play live.