This One's Quite a Girl
Thursday, February 28, 2008
By Mark Bialczak
Staff writer
High on Martina McBride's to-do list this Friday in mid-February is turning a critical ear to her own work.
"Today, I'm listening to some live tracks," the country music star says by telephone from her home in Nashville, Tenn. "We're doing a live CD/DVD combo. We recorded a show in Moline (Ill.) for a PBS 'Great Performances' special."
Also on the list: Listening to other people's songs as McBride begins to shape her next studio album. "It's intense," McBride says. "I picked up a stack of 20 songs I need to listen to today."
Others have similar piles, including associates from her record label, RCA Nashville, members of her own staff and her producer, Dan Huff.
"First of all, the important thing is to find the songs," she says. "We found three songs, went out and cut them (in a studio). We added instruments and learned them and know them well. We're building."
Can she possibly continue the success that's accompanied her 10 previous albums?
"I just started it, so it's too early to tell," McBride says. "I can't tell what it's going to sound like or feel like or describe it in words. But it's fun to get in and make another one."
Does she know a hit when she hears one?
"No, I really don't," she says. "I've Mc
got instincts about certain songs. There are so many factors that go into play. It's not necessarily the (artist's) favorite songs that go on the radio. It's complicated. I learned that. If it doesn't get through the gatekeepers of radio, nobody hears it. It's frustrating when I think it's a hit, and it doesn't make it, and I still think it's a hit."
The fans who will attend McBride's "Waking Up Laughing" tour concert Sunday at the Onondaga County War Memorial would likely venture a guess that whatever direction the new album takes, it's still likely to include songs they'll hear on the radio.
That's been the case since "My Baby Loves Me" became McBride's first top-five single in 1993. She's gone on to chart five No. 1 songs on the Billboard hot country charts: "Wild Angels," "A Broken Wing," "Wrong Again," "I Love You" and "Blessed."
Another, "This One's for the Girls," hit the top of the Billboard adult contemporary chart. Hasn't everybody in America been in a room where the women began to triumphantly sing that one?
And that listdoesn't even include her trademark song, the set-me-free-from-abuse "Independence Day," the joyous "Happy Girl" or last year's hear-it-everywhere tale, "Anyway."
Be certain that McBride's soaring soprano voice will lift every song to exciting heights.
The joy in her voice will be real.
"Oh, yeah. I love it now probably more than ever," McBride says of her career.
"I think I appreciate it more now than I ever have. And being able to headline a tour is a blessing. You have your own personal stamp on the show," she says. "I have people out on the road who have been with me now for 12, 14 years."
One of those is her younger brother, Marty, an important part of her band.
"We've made music together forever," McBride says. "We lived out in the country (in Medicine Lodge, Kan.), so we'd sit up and play and record ourselves. There's nothing like having family out on the road."
Her traveling family unit includes her and husband John McBride's three daughters, Delaney, 13; Emma, 9; and Ava, 2.
"My kids areolder now," McBride says. "That makes it different. I toured for a long time with just little kids. Now I realize why I was so tired. The older ones help with the 2-year-old."
She's carved the road itinerary so Delaney and Emma can do most of the things they want with their friends at home.
"We basically tour on weekends," McBride says. "Spring break, we'll be up in Canada. We travel heavily in the summer."
Teens will be teens, though.
"Delaney, she's missed a couple of things, birthday parties. That doesn't go over well," McBride says. "Most of the time, I still want her with us."
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