Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050563
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Or maybe M.C. Sarcastic.
"Salem . . . hot damn!" she said near the end of her concert Thursday night at the Salem Civic Center, tongue firmly planted in cheek. "Wait until I tell Kenny Rogers what he missed."
Kenny couldn't make it to Salem to sing their duet, "If I Ever Fall In Love Again," and she said he was just sick about it.
Of course, Murray is no rapper. Far from it, the 45-year-old Canadian-born singer is anything but. Oozing of squeaky-clean, she falls somewhere between country, pop and middle of the road.
This she even admits.
"The one question I get asked the most is: Do you consider yourself to be a pop singer or a country music singer? And I say yes," she told the audience of 2,215. "I'm from Nova Scotia. I didn't know you had to be one or the other."
Rather, she said she has always picked songs that she liked, regardless of musical stereotype.
A medley of some of her No. 1 country singles then spoke for itself, ranging from the pop leanings of "Another Sleepless Night" to a cover version of the Monkees song, "Daydream Believer."
Later, she performed her other hits, including, "You Needed Me," "A Little Good News," "Songbird" and "Could I Have This Dance," which were all over all the charts, not just country.
Yet, throughout, one theme dominated: love. In this, Murray didn't joke around, singing love song after love song almost to the brink of overkill - but not quite.
The ballads are what she does best, and whether you like her music or not, when she sank her voice into "You Needed Me," she was terrific.
She also seemed so nice.
During her often long-winded storytelling between numbers, a sense of Anne Murray the real person came through - something that most image-conscious performers don't allow anymore. It was a refreshing change.
She talked about how a fan once mailed her a sketch of another singer, Helen Reddy, and asked her to autograph it.
She described the time early in her career when she was booked at a fair outside Chicago and was told that she was the second choice for entertainment. Organizers had really wanted Lassie.
Murray seemed humbled by it all, even as a steady flow of flowers were delivered to the stage by fans throughout Thursday's 90-minute show. One man even gave her $20, saying he didn't have time to stop by the florist.
"Well, that's a first," she said, later promising to give the money to charity.
How nice of her.
by CNB