Melissa Etheridge is one of the most amazing artist I have ever heard. The first time I ever heard "Bring Me Some Water" on the radio I was complety blown away. It is still the most powerful song I have ever heard. This album is by far my favorite of hers. Yes, it is the epitomy of a very tortured, struggling, yearning, broken heart, but how many of us have never felt this sort of stuff in our lives? Not too many. Every single song on this album just drips with painful emotion. Some criticize her work because of this fact. I say, they just don't get it.

I say this album definitely has it's place. No, you shouldn't spend your whole life wallowing in heartache but when you ARE wallowing, it's such a release to be able to have music that just SCREAMS OUT what you are feeling. Like she seems to say with "Precious Pain" - "...empty and cold, but it keeps me alive..." - sometimes our pain is the only way we know that we are still alive.

I love every song on this album and it has touched me so deeply that it's hard to say which songs I like best. Occasionally is very unique and catchy, and "Chrome Plated Heart" is emotionally right up there with "Bring Me Some Water". I just can't say enough good things about this album or Melissa. It's awesome! Buy it!

I'm a sophomore in college. I hear the end of 'Bring Me Some Water' and am absolutely blown away. Who is this? There are very few songs and very few artists who captivate me with one listen, not even a whole song at that. Melissa Etheridge became one of them.

Never had I heard such passion, such emotion, such brooding and gutteral emotional reflections on an album. It tapped right into the darkness I was feeling and provided therapy to a wounded soul. It just sounded real.

After finding out who this artist was, I ran out and bought the album. I loved every single moment of it and played it and played it and played it. 'Precious Pain' is perhaps the greatest song every laid down that taps into the rawness of our human emotions.

Every song is just as intense. She jams, she gets intensely quiet and she can play that guitar like nobody's business.

This is the real Melissa Etheridge, as far as I'm concerned. She strayed a bit as she became popular (seems to happen, no?) but it is here, close to her roots, where we discover the passion and power of her singing.

I sort of fell away from listening to her new stuff when her personal business got more attention (both from the media and from her) than her music. This is the one to which I always return when I need to reflect and really feel.

Melissa Etheridge's first CD was a dream come true for me. Smart, passionate, hard-singing, and guitar driven, her music exploded in my head. It was exactly what I'd waited for from a female rocker. The CD begins with Similar Features which is all about the caged anger of rejection. Imagine Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know as a smoldering acoustic number. Like The Way I Do was the very first Etheridge song that I heard on the radio. If your blood doesn't get spiked from blasting this cut while you're heading down the highway with your windows open, then you're absolutely dead. Her voice raging, the guitars racing, it's all about the fire on that song. Precious Pain is a quiet song about being lost and trying to find your way--very pretty without being melodramatic. The next song, Don't You Need, also starts out softly but then it kicks into a higher gear mirroring the increasing urgency of the lyrics as she asks, "Don't you need...don't you want...don't you bleed." One of my favorites is The Late September Dogs. From a whisper to a scream, this song is rainy day angst. Again no melodrama, just a purity of emotions. With only ME's voice and some sparse percussion as background, Occasionally reminds me of Roy Orbison's Only The Lonely. As I listen to Watching You, it occurs to me that it's Ms. Etheridge's voice that ultimately ignites and soothes every moment of this music. WY is another seemingly subdued song that builds and builds until it's her voice that finally releases us. The second ME song that I ever heard was Bring Me Some Water which also crashes and blazes with guitars, screams, pounding drums and sexy lyrics. Aaahh, I love rock music.

If I could only have 1 CD for the rest of life, this would be it! For the moment I first heard "Like the Way I Do" back in 1988 I knew I was hearing something special. Melissa doesn't just wear her heart on her sleeve, she has made a full suit out of it. Every song brims with passion, honesty, pain, loss, desire and raw sexuality. She is easily the greatest 12 string guitarist in the last 30 years and her band on this release (especially Kevin McCormick) are beyond brilliant, adding fills that transform the standard blues rhythms to a higher level, beyond anything ever heard before from an acustic-based female performer. A personal favorite is "Watching You" which perfectly conveys the feelings of being in love with someone you know can't or won't ever love you back. And every time I hear "Occasionally" I picture Melissa driving down the L.A. freeways, tapping the beat out on the steering wheel (yes, that is how the song was born!) For all the fans who came aboard with Yes I Am, this is record is a must. You will be blown away!

I purchased this CD yesterday (7/21/02). This artist is absolutely the greatest female rock singer I have ever heard. She is full of passion, pain and truth. More artists should listen and learn from her and music would be so much closer to the heart of us all. I listened yesterday while outside at a BBQ, but due to all the people around couldn't get the full effect of her lyrics. However, this morning on the way to work, I listened and felt her very emotions blasting from my CD player. She is incredibly real! I am a happily married woman of 33 years old with a 13 year old daughter. I do not judge people based on their sexuality preference, religion, race, etc. My opinions of this CD are strictly based on the woman's talent as singer/songwriter. Melissa Etheridge is truly worth listening to and I guarantee that if you have a heart or have ever felt the pain of love lost or love that could never be, then you will understand her music.

-Michelle Thompson