Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 21, 1995                   TAG: 9504210137
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SUE SMALLWOOD LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DON'T TRY TO PUT A LABEL ON CRYSTAL GAYLE'S STYLE

``I consider myself a singer, I love to sing all different styles,'' she said recently during a break from recording her 18th album, her first full-length gospel project. ``I grew up singing all different styles of music, and I never thought I had to quit. As far as singing country, pop, rock, blues - I love to sing it all.''

Music has always been a part of Kentucky-born Gayle's life. As a youngster, she sang along with Leslie Gore, Brenda Lee and Patsy Cline on the radio, then discovered the Beatles and Peter, Paul and Mary.

Gayle signed her first recording contract while still in school and cracked the country charts with her debut single, ``I've Cried (the Blue Right Out of My Eyes),'' which was penned by sister Lynn. Almost three dozen hit records have followed, including her '70s crossover smash ``Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.''

``Growing up with a sister in the business like my sister, we went to a lot of concerts, listened to a lot of radio,'' Gayle said of her early years. ``My mother, though, said I could sing before I could walk, so I guess it was written in the stars or something that I was going to be a singer.''

Though she's proud of big sister Loretta, Gayle has never had to rely on her family ties to achieve chart-topping success.

``It's not real easy to get into the business and to make it when you're related to other people who've already made it,'' she said, ``but my background was so totally different from my sister's, I had people when I first started out saying, `You can't be [Lynn's] sister because you just don't sound like her.'''

There's 19 years' difference in age between Gayle and Lynn - Gayle's the youngest of eight children - but ``we're close as we can be for not really being together as much as we'd like to be,'' Gayle said.

Gayle has a raft of awards to go along with her hit singles and platinum-selling albums: She's been named Female Country Vocalist of the Year three times by the Academy of Country Music, twice by the Country Music Association and three times by the American Music Awards. She nabbed a Grammy for ``Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.''

But the singer takes it all in stride, preferring to focus on her family and fans.

``Being a mother, that's a big accomplishment,'' she said when asked which of her many achievements she's most proud of. ``Within my career, just being able to do what I've done, to have people from all over the world write letters and tell me how much the music has meant to them, that I've helped them in their life. That's what hits home to me.''