Melissa Etheridge says attending her 'One Woman Band' solo shows will be like “coming into my kitchen”

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Ellie McIntyre

Melissa Etheridge kicks off her four-night solo residency show, Melissa Etheridge: One Woman Band, at City Winery New York on May 30.  She then heads to City Winery Boston for four more nights — and plans to expand the residency concept in the future.

That’s one of the things that I’m very hopeful for…that this is something we can do in other places,” she tells ABC Audio. “I’d love to do a longer version of this, because it’s so intimate and it’s just me and it’s really fun.”

“I mean, I love being in front of thousands of people with a rock band behind me, don’t get me wrong,” she adds. “[But] I also like to be able to slip in to this intimate scene and do this, too.”

The set list for these special shows will be different each night — except for the hits.

“I always tell myself, I might do these songs every night, but the people that come to see me, this may be the only time they see me,” Melissa explains. “And they want to have that experience of singing ‘Come to My Window’ or ‘I’m the Only One’ with me, so I’ll definitely do those.”

She’ll also give fans a look at her songwriting process, by playing the components of each song herself in real time — which is basically what she’s been doing virtually since 2020.

“[D]uring the pandemic is where it really grew,” she explains. “Having a year and a half to play all of my songs — like, every song I had ever recorded — I…just really got very good at making a track live and singing to it.”

She laughs, “This is like, you’re coming into my kitchen, [I] got my ingredients. I’m going to make it right in front of you, and we’re all going to sit there, eat it, and enjoy it!”

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