A VERY SPECIAL EVENING AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY Posted on Friday, October 21, 2005 This Saturday, October 22nd, Martina will take the Grand Ole Opry stage for an unprecedented one hour live performance of songs from her newly released album Timeless. People Magazine said the phenomenal Martina McBride’s one hour Opry performance shouldn’t be missed. It will broadcast live on television network G-A-C: Great American Country at 8PM Eastern/7PM Central. McBride's performance is an almost unheard-of change of pace for the long-running radio show, which typically features between six and eight acts per hour. Martina will sing some of her own hits. She’ll also perform duets with Ray Price and Connie Smith. “It’s really an unprecedented show,” says Opry general manager Pete Fisher. “But with Martina being both a revered Opry member and a contemporary superstar in country music, we felt that showcasing her talent and these classic songs was a perfect match for a special Grand Ole Opry show.” McBride cut Timeless at the Nashville studio she owns with her husband, John McBride, who made his reputation in Music City running sound for Garth Brooks’ tours. Though she usually receives a co-producer’s credit on her albums, Timeless is the first Martina has produced by herself. She used a group of backing musicians that included two members of the Opry house band, drummer Eddie Bayers and bassist Larry Paxton, as well as guitarist Steve Gibson, who also serves as musical director for the long-running radio show. “I wanted people who were excited about recreating this music and who would understand how to give it the authenticity I wanted,” McBride says. “I wasn’t interested in doing a 2005 version. I wanted to get the feel of the original recording.” Some tracks became exercises in re-creating the sound of such classic country records as “Rose Garden” and Connie Smith’s 1964 debut hit, “Once a Day.” McBride would thoroughly analyze the originals, then record them using her husband’s extensive collection of vintage microphones and equipment. In other cases, McBride knew the songs better than she did the hit records. On those tunes, she allowed herself more interpretive freedom. One such song was Ray Price’s 1954 hit “I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me),” which McBride had learned from a vanity 78 her father recorded. “He won a contest, and the prize was making a record at a recording studio somewhere in Kansas,” McBride recalls. “When we were kids, my grandma would pull out this record if we begged enough – she didn’t want to scratch it! – and she would play it for us. It was always a treat.” Raised on a farm in Sharon, Kansas, McBride grew up in a musical household. Her father, Daryl Schiff, rehearsed his band every week at the house. Martina started singing with the band when she was just 7 years old. Martina and John McBride married in 1988 and moved to Nashville two years later. Martina broke into the music business by selling T-shirts for Garth Brooks’ 1991 tour. She released her first album in 1992 and moved up to the opening slot on Brooks’ tour in 1993. Last year, the Country Music Association named McBride its Female Vocalist of the Year for the fourth time, tying her with fellow Opry member Reba McEntire for the most wins in that category. She’s up for the award again this year. She also received a Vocal Event of the Year nomination for her “Trip Around the Sun” duet with Jimmy Buffett. McBride will celebrate her 10th anniversary as an Opry member in November. She joined the cast during the taping of the show’s 70th anniversary TV special, inducted by Loretta Lynn. McBride has long had a special relationship with Lynn and her music. “You think you’d get over being starstruck,” McBride says. “But when she’s around, I just don’t know what to say. She talks 90 miles an hour, and I just sit there and try to soak it all in and not forget a word that she says. Because you’re talking to a legend.” McBride recorded Lynn’s 1966 hit “You Ain’t Woman Enough” for Timeless. Lynn’s original was on the charts when McBride was born. “I’ve sung this a few times, twice when Loretta was in the audience,” McBride says. “I just love the confidence and sassiness of the lyrics. We stayed very close to the original version.” The process of assembling Timeless turned into a country music history lesson for McBride. While she knew, for instance, that she wanted to pay tribute to Connie Smith by recording her debut hit, “Once a Day,” she didn’t know that another Opry member, Bill Anderson, had written it. “So I got to tip my hat to Bill and Connie!” she says. McBride also covered Pruett’s “Satin Sheets.” The original spent three weeks atop the country charts in 1973. “I tended to shy away from songs that I had sung growing up,” McBride says. “I think it’s because I felt like, ‘I’ve already done that.’ This was an exception. I did sing ‘Satin Sheets’ all the time in my dad’s band as a kid, so it is part of my personal history. For this version we tried to stay very close to the original, right down to the background vocal parts.” Fisher says McBride and her new album perfectly complement the Grand Ole Opry, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year. “Like the Opry, which has a rich history yet is very much about what is happening in country music today, Martina’s new album is both current and timeless,” Fisher says. “It reflects what the Opry is all about – contemporary relevance and classic music.” Back To News Page