When multi-Grammy winning rock icon Melissa Etheridge comes to the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre, she likes to bring along friends. This year’s co-headlining companion is folk-rock-country superstar Jewel. SLC music lovers can catch this must-see show at Red Butte Gardens on July 29, 2024.
In the mid-1990s a handful of records, all by female artists, sat in my stereo’s multi-disc CD player on constant rotation (that’s how we “streamed” music back in the day). Melissa Etheridge’s Yes I Am, Jewel’s Pieces of You, Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, and Joan Osborne’s Relish shaped my musical tastes then and remain among my favorites, almost 30 years later.
A tour-de-force rock and blues artist, Melissa Etheridge ignites her signature power ballads with hard-driving guitar licks and a raspy, soulful voice. In the late ‘80s she gained underground success with her self-titled debut album. Compared to Tina Turner and Janis Joplin, Ethridge won her first Grammy in 1992 with the single “Ain’t It Heavy.” She enjoyed massive commercial success in 1994 with two chart-topping singles “I’m The Only One,” and “Come To My Window,” and a second Grammy for her fourth record, Yes I Am. Her follow-up multi-platinum selling record Your Little Secret produced the mega-hit “I Want To Come Over” and established Ethridge as one of the decade’s premier rockers.
In the midst of her battle with cancer and aggressive chemotherapy in 2005, she ignited the Grammy stage with the performance of a lifetime. Her live rendition of “Piece of my Heart ‘‘ showed the world she could beat cancer and keep on rockin’. In 2006, she received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “I Need to Wake Up” featured in the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth.
Jewel began life in rural Alaska on a homestead without running water. As a teen she left the frozen frontier to study opera in Michigan before busking her way onto the San Diego music scene. In California, her hardscrabble folk songs got her noticed, a record deal followed, and her debut album Pieces of You launched her into the pop stratosphere. The record produced three commercial hit singles: “Who Will Save Your Soul,” “You Were Meant for Me,” and “Foolish Games.”
Fun fact: Jewel was born in Payson Utah before the family moved on to Homer, Alaska
In addition to selling over 30 million albums worldwide, Jewel is an accomplished author having published five books, including her 2015 New York Times best-selling memoir, Never Broken. Jewel has released 13 studio albums, including her latest release Freewheelin’ Woman.
This show is sold out, but plans can change for ticket holders, so stay vigilant and lookout for available tickets from trusted sources.
To whet your appetite watch this amazing video of Etheridge and Jewel doing “You Can Sleep While I Drive.”
Tickets are still available for these Red Butte Garden shows:
- Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo (7/31) They totally rocked last summer!
- Stray Cats w/ Midnight Cowgirls ( 8/5) They’re gonna “Rock This Town.”
- Gary Clark Jr (8/11)
- Yonder Mountain String Band/ Railroad Earth/ Leftover Salmon (8/15). Three amazing acts for under $60. Wow!
- Gipsy Kings featuring Nicolas Reyes (8/20)
- Pink Martini featuring China Forbes (8/27)
- Lukas Nelson w/ Talia Keys (8/28) I won’t miss this one!
- The Airborne Toxic Event w/ Tyler Ramsey (9/5)
- Keane w/ Everything Everything (9/8)
- Jesús Aguaje Ramos and his Buena Vista Orchestra (9/9). I’ll be there!
- Crowded House (9/18)
- Rodrigo Y Gabriela (9/24)
Who: Melissa Etheridge and Jewel
What: Co-headlining show
Where: Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
When: 7/29/2024
Tickets and info: https://redbuttegarden.org/concerts/
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