Why did Melissa cross the road? Melissa Ferrick talks about taking risks to put out her latest CD, The Other Side.

When Melissa Ferrick says she's calling from the parking lot of a shopping mall near her home in Newburyport, Mass., it doesn't quite track. The out folk-rocker with the powerhouse voice and the gut-spilling lyrics is not exactly the galleria type. "I know I should he calling from like a used-clothing store or something," says the singer with a laugh, "but sometimes it's just good to go to the mall and buy things you don't really need."

Ferrick can be forgiven for a little retail therapy; she's under a lot of pressure these days. Her new album, The Other Side, is an all-Ferrick-all-the time affair. She wrote it, produced it, engineered it, sings all the vocals, and plays all the instruments (save for one cameo guitar appearance by Teddy Goldstein). "It was like creating Frankenstein with the freakin' wires everywhere, but I loved every minute of it," she says of her process. "Every time my heater would go on, it would make this noise, so I would have to wait to do a vocal until the heat shut off, and then I knew I had eight minutes before it would click on again."

If there's anyone who knows how on-again, off-again heat can be in the music business, it's Melissa Ferrick. She was just 20 when she signed a dream-come-true, multi-album deal with Atlantic Records, but she was dropped after just two CDs. "It wasn't the right record at the right time," concedes Ferrick. "It's not anybody's fault. I made a shitload of mistakes and yelled at executives that you just don't yell at, but I was trying to save my life, and I didn't know how else to do it." It was in the mid '90s, while putting out her albums on the indie label called What Are Records? that the Berklee College of Music alum bottomed out. "I was drinking like a fish every day and taking a bunch of pills," she admits. "I had to move into my parents' house because I had no money. I lost everything. I was a mess."

Ferrick credits a chance meeting in 1996 with the late gay photographer Herb Ritts with getting her back on track. "I played a show in Santa Fe, and a friend brought Herb," recalls Ferrick, her voice brimming with emotion. "We just had a very intense connection. He bought 30 copies of my CD Willing to Wait. He brought me to his house when I was staying at the Motel 6. He became a friend. I felt hope from him at a time when I had nothing, and I needed somebody to care about me. I didn't know if I was good enough to make records anymore, and he really helped me feel that I was. I got sober after that. Then in 2000, I started my own label."

Though The Other Side marks Ferrick's fourth release for her company, Right On Records, in some ways it feels like a maiden voyage. "I'm laying it all on the line," asserts Ferrick, who's pulling out all the stops to get The Other Side out there--overhauling her Web site, embarking on a summer tour of intimate concerts with Q&A sessions, and making her songs available online via Apple's iTunes. "I took a loan out against my house to put this album out. Of course it's scary., but what else am I going to do? I love to play--I'm not done making records. I love this album, and I feel inspired again."

And if the devotion of her fans, or Ferrick-heads as they like to call themselves, is any indication, the singer's inspiration is contagious and not just limited to the women-who-dig-women demographic. "One time I autographed this straight woman's breast for her husband," Ferrick says with a laugh, "and sometimes people say that their kids love my music, which I love."

So does the constantly touring, recently single Ferrick ever hook up with groupies? "I want to be in love," she says, "so I'm not all that interested in getting naked with people unless I'm going to be with them. I like making out, but lesbians, if you kiss them, you're in a relationship, and that's not how I am. I feel like I'm floating in the middle of my sexuality, and l don't really know. I just want to love, and I'm sick of definitions right now. God, l sound like something out of The L Word."

Speaking of which, is Ferrick a fan of the Showtime series? "Oh, my God, I bought a DVD recorder just so I could tape it when I'm on tour," she says, gushing. "I so want to be the folksinger at the Planet so I could hit on the hot tennis player. She gets cuter every week."