Grammy Award-winner Melissa Etheridge returns to the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, June 29, at 8 p.m. with her M.E. Solo tour. A limited run in an intimate setting, Melissa will play acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica and piano will perform songs from her latest album, This is M.E.

"It's my first independent album," Etheridge says, referring to her fledging record label. “I haven’t been this excited about making music and creating in ages."

The album, Etheridge's 12th, features songwriting collaborations with a rich and varied roster of talent, including Jerrod Bettis (Adele, One Republic), Jon Levine (Nelly Furtado, Selena Gomez), Jerry Wonda (Grammy Award-winning producer of the Fugees, Mary J. Blige) and Roccstar (Usher, Chris Brown), among others. The collaborations represented a big departure for her, but one that she found incredibly fulfilling and fun. She will also be teaming up to perform with other musicians later in her tour, including Neil Giraldo, Pat Benatar, Blondie and Joan Jett.

Etheridge has also won an Oscar for her work, for the song "I Need to Wake Up" from the film An Inconvenient Truth. She won as a real Hollywood rarity: female composers make up the barest percentage of feature film composers, roughly 2 percent in recent years. Etheridge is currently serving on a committee to help get those numbers up. "It's not a conspiracy," she says. "It is just a really closed industry. You can't get credit until you have credit, and people tend to stick with someone with an established reputation."

When she's not creating her own music, Etheridge enjoys listening to others—these days, Beyonce's "Lemonade" is a favorite. "It's just a great expression of art and human emotion. It comes from within."

Etheridge's enthusiasm for her work is palpable, and she makes it look easy. "No nerves," she says. I'm doing what I love."

The M.E. Solo tour will feature both new tunes and classics like “Come to My Window” and “I Want to Come Over,” all intertwined with personal anecdotes. Tickets from $55 to $75 are available at www.zeiterion.org, 508/994-2900 or at the Zeiterion box office, 684 Purchase Street, New Bedford.