ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220022
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
What more is there for me to say about Reba McEntire?
The answer: nothing.
So, I'm giving her fans a turn to play the critic. Instead of recycling the same basic review I wrote last year when Reba played Roanoke, I'm turning over my pen to a few of her most loyal of followers.
They say this will give people a real picture of what a Reba concert is all about.
Let's just say I have my doubts. But that's OK. Maybe it's time for another perspective. After all, I have covered country's reigning queen in concert a half-dozen times now, and I have offered my opinion. In fact, I have started to become redundant.
I usually say something like this: ``Reba puts on a big show. She has big hair, a big voice (perhaps too big), she's big on costume changes, big entrances and big finishes, and generally she goes overboard in everything.''
Of course she does!
That's what makes Reba special. "That's what makes her Reba," her fans tell me.
But does that necessarily make her good?
Tonight, Reba McEntire once again will perform at the Roanoke Civic Center coliseum. In Monday's Extra section, I will let some of her fans offer their spin on the show. Will Reba be as big and wonderful as ever? Or will she disappoint?
We'll see on Monday.
In the meantime, let's meet a few of Reba's devoted fans. And let me explain that one reason I chose them for this task is that, in country music at least, her fans are some of the most loyal and dedicated.
Reba's fan club totals some 45,000 members ranking it, along with Alan Jackson's and George Strait's, as one of the most active fan organizations in the music industry, according to Loudilla Johnson of the International Fan Club Organization in Nashville.
Susan Booth is 36. She graduated from William Byrd High School in 1978. For two years, she was a Virginia state trooper. Now, she is a dispatcher at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. She has been a Reba fan for 11 years.
Booth was attracted primarily to Reba's voice. To her, it echoed Patsy Cline. ``This is probably what Patsy Cline would have been like if she hadn't died,'' she said. ``She would have been as big and entertaining as Reba.''
The first Reba concert she attended was at Busch Gardens. After the show, she noticed some people in the audience who weren't filing out like everyone else. She talked to them. They were in the Reba fan club and were waiting to go backstage. They told her that fan club members were entitled to one backstage pass to meet Reba every year.
Booth joined the next day.
She has since met Reba twice. The first time was after a concert in Roanoke. Booth had planned to ask Reba to autograph a T-shirt and she brought a camera, hoping they could pose together. But she froze.
Happily, their second meeting went much better. She asked Reba about flying. Reba even wished her a happy birthday. But regretfully, that probably was their last meeting. As of this year, Reba has discontinued giving backstage passes to fan club members.
It's just as well, Booth said. The backstage meetings had become such mob scenes in recent years. You didn't really get to speak with her individually. ``I wouldn't want to do it under those conditions anyway,'' she said.
Meanwhile, Booth concedes that maybe Reba goes a little overboard in concert. ``But I don't think it's too much - not yet. I mean, that's kind of what keeps you coming out. It's like, what's she going to do this year? Her flashiness has kept up with her growth.''
Then she posed a question to herself.
``When is too much too much?'' she asked. ``According to a Reba fan, never.''
Michael Bell agreed.
Bell, 28, is a graduate of William Fleming High School and Roanoke College. He works as a mortgage analyst for First National Mortgage Corp. and has been a Reba fan for 10 years, ever since he first saw her video ``Whoever's In New England.''
``The song came on and the video came on and all the things just clicked at once,'' he said.
He found Reba's distinctive vocal pyrotechnics particularly appealing. Bell calls these her ``curly cues.'' ``She just sort of rolls them off her tongue.'' Also, her eyes are so expressive, he said. ``I think her eyes could sing just as well as her voice.''
Bell has seen Reba in concert more than a dozen times. He has watched her transform herself from a ``plain and simple'' stage performer to the over-the-top entertainer she is today. ``I don't think [her music] has become secondary. I think the costumes have become an enhancer,'' he said.
She's not perfect, though.
``Her acting needs improvement,'' Bell admitted. ``But her music? No.''
In the end, Delores Kirschner probably summed it up best.
She is 62, a Philadelphia native who lived on Long Island, N.Y., for 34 years before coming to Roanoke about seven years ago. She and her daughter, Deanna, have been fan club members since 1990.
Like Bell and Booth and most Reba fans, Kirschner sees nothing wrong with Reba's lack of subtlety. ``I think as she has gotten better and better and bigger and bigger, she has gotten more confident,'' she said.
But take all that away and Kirschner said it wouldn't change a thing.
``Even if she said I'm just coming here to sing, I'd still go see her.''
Shuttles to the sellout: Buses will run from the Williamson Road parking garage to the Civic Center for Reba McEntire's show Friday night. The concert begins at 8 p.m.; shuttles begin at 6:30. They'll resume right after the show. The shuttle and parking garage are free. The show's sold out.|
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. 1. A sample of fan-clubby CNBmembers' Reba-bilia: Susan Booth's birthday T-shirt, signed by the
star, and concert tickets; Michael Bell's pillows made from
T-shirts; and Delores Kirschner's certificate and concert programs.
2. Just three of Reba's many fans: Susan Booth, Michael Bell and
Delores Kirschner, all of Roanoke, pose behind Bell's Reba quilt,
with a picture of the singer projected behind them. All are members
of the Reba
McEntire International Fan Club. color.