Upcoming Melissa Etheridge album was recorded at a prison — in Topeka

A bond that developed between five female Topeka Correctional Facility inmates and Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge led to her performing there last May.

A live album of songs from the concert will be released July 5, Sun Records said in a news release Friday announcing the release of that album's first single, "The Shadow of a Black Crow (Live From Topeka Correctional Facility)."

The single, available on all streaming platforms, is among 12 tracks featured on "I'm Not Broken (Live From Topeka Correctional Facility)," an album Sun Records will release July 5, the release said.

"The record captures Etheridge’s powerful message of hope through song, as she plays for the prison’s 2,500 female residents," it said. "Along with moving live renditions, the recording is filled with earnest stage banter from Etheridge and approving cheers from the residents, offering a true ear into the atmosphere of the full-production concert."

'Powerful message of hope'

The album is linked to a two-part docuseries to be released later this year on Paramount+ titled "Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken," said Friday's news release.

It described the docuseries as "an inspiring story of connectivity, empathy, and music’s power to heal."

A release date hasn't been made public for the docuseries.

It tells "an inspiring story of healing and transcendence through the power of music when five female residents from the Topeka Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in Kansas, write letters to Etheridge that she uses as inspiration to create and perform an original song for them, Paramount+ said in its April 4 release announcing the docuseries.

"Having recently lost her son to opioids, Etheridge works to understand and interrupt the cycle of addiction while connecting with these women who, so often, are forgotten by society," the release added.

Etheridge's upcoming album's first single, "Shadow of a Black Crow," was written for her son, Beckett Cypheridge, who died of opioid addiction in 2020, the release said, adding that a stylistically animated lyric video for that song can be viewed online.

Cypheridge was 17 years old when he became addicted to opiates after breaking his ankle in 2016, Etheridge told The Capital-Journal in 2022.

He battled the addiction for four years, eventually becoming a user of fentanyl, which is far more powerful than morphine, she said.

The docuseries also explores themes of female incarceration, redemption, substance abuse, generational trauma, grief and healing, the Paramount+ news release said.

'A concert at a prison like Johnny Cash'

Etheridge grew up surrounded by prisons at Leavenworth, she told Us Magazine earlier this month.

"And Johnny Cash, when I was little, came and performed at the Federal Penitentiary, but we didn’t get to see him," she said. "Only the prisoners did. And since then, I always was like, ‘Wow, I want to bring my music to the inmates and lift them up.’ And so we finally got it all together last year and we went to the Topeka Women’s Correctional Facility and I’m so proud of it.”

Cash in 1968 released a well-known live album, "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison," which had been recorded earlier that year during two concerts at California's Folsom Prison.

How did Sun Records rise to prominence?

Sun Records, which is releasing Etheridge's upcoming album, gained prominence after founder Sam Phillips in the 1950s discovered singing stars Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins.

Sun Records was purchased in 2021 by Primary Wave, a privately held music publishing and talent management company.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: New single by Melissa Etheridge was recorded at a prison in Topeka