Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 18, 1993 TAG: 9302170136
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
YEARWOOD KNOWS ALL THE RIGHT MOVES
Trisha Yearwood sure did figure out the right formula for success.First, she left her small Georgia hometown - Monticello, pop. 2,000 - for the promise of Nashville. Here, Yearwood was like a thousand other aspiring country singers.
But then, she started laying the groundwork for what would lead to her becoming one of Nashville's more promising talents. She will open for Travis Tritt tonight at the Salem Civic Center. Also on the bill is Little Texas.
In 1985, Yearwood enrolled at Belmont College in Nashville and went on to earn a degree in business, with a concentration in the music industry.
Next, she landed a job working the front desk at Mary Tyler Moore's short-lived MTM country label, where she started making music industry contacts.
Those led her to the studio, where she cut her teeth singing demo recordings that songwriters use to pitch their songs to Nashville's established stars.
The demo work was great training, she has said. "I learned what kinds of songs I wanted to do, and I met a lot of songwriters. . . . And you get better as you do it, because you get used to being really, really fast."
As fate would have it, while cutting demos, Yearwood met another young demo singer named Garth Brooks, who vowed that if he ever made it, he'd take her along.
Two years later, as Brooks skyrocketed to the top of country music, Yearwood found herself singing on his records and opening his concerts.
She hooked up with Nashville producer Garth Fundis soon afterward, and in 1991 she released her debut album, "Trisha Yearwood."
Heavy-hitter manager Ken Kragen, who has represented the likes of Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers, then signed on, and Yearwood was off.
"Trisha Yearwood" spawned four hit singles, including "She's in Love With the Boy," "That's What I Like About You," "The Woman Before Me" and "Like We Never Had a Broken Heart," on which Garth Brooks joined her for the harmonies.
But the breakthrough of the group was "She's in Love With the Boy," a song about teen-age passions in a land of drive-in movies and ice cream stands. It put Yearwood at No. 1 on the charts and established her as more than just the woman that Garth made.
Critics have compared her to Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, both of whom Yearwood cites as musical influences.
In fact, like many of her current country counterparts, she owes much to the Harris-Ronstadt folk-rock sound that they helped pioneer in the 1970s. That's what she grew up listening to.
"A lot of the country people coming out now weren't influenced so much by George Jones, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard as by James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg and Linda Ronstadt," she told Newsweek magazine.
Yearwood, 28, has followed her 1991 debut with an even better, "Hearts of Armor," that perhaps is not as radio-catchy as "Trisha Yearwood," but offers a better, more mature batch of songs.
Impressive, too, is the album's lineup of guest harmonizers that include Garth Brooks, Emmylou Harris, Don Henley and Vince Gill. That is some pretty good company.
At the same time, Yearwood has gone in for an image make-over, changing from down-home and brown-haired country to blonde and uptown sophisticated.
It should only help her as well, since Nashville in general leans more toward upscale. Proof again that Yearwood seems to know all the right moves to make.
Of course, she would argue otherwise. She has said her plan was always to become a singer. From there, she just followed her instincts. Nothing was as calculated as it might appear.
"Looking back, it looks like I knew what I was I was doing, but I really didn't. I just kind of jumped in and stared doing something."
Trisha Yearwood opens for Travis Tritt tonight at the Salem Civic Center. Little Texas opens.\
Keywords:
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