ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NASHVILLE
SOURCE: JIM PATTERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
Terri Clark has gone from tough customer to ``Emotional Girl.''
In 1995, the 28-year-old Canadian had her first hit with ``Better Things to Do,'' a scornful kiss-off to an errant boyfriend. In it, she sneered that she'd rather ``check the air in my tires, straighten my stereo wires,'' than ``waste my time crying over you.''
Clark's near 6-foot frame, accentuated with big hat and boots, sealed the image: Trifle with this woman at your own risk.
But in a recent interview, Clark maintained that she is, at heart, ``one of the biggest wimpies I know.''
Dressed in her trademark jeans, biceps-revealing T-shirt, boots and white hat, Clark spots several awards shipped from Canada that are waiting for her. It's enough to set off several minutes of childlike glee. She screams ``Yippee!'' at the top of her powerful lungs and cradles them like newborn babes.
``I'm in awe of the whole thing,'' she said about her success before settling down behind her desk. She said she used the gunfighter image of the debut CD to separate herself from other aspiring female singers.
``I adopted that image very, very on-purpose,'' Clark said. ``But my goodness, that's definitely not what I'm ALL about.''
Her second compact disc is titled ``Just the Same'' after one of its singles, but things are not the same at all. Clark's singing is notably improved - she handles the sensitive balladeering of ``Just the Same'' and cocky honky-tonk of ``Neon Flame'' with equal aplomb.
She also risked comparisons with Linda Ronstadt by releasing ``Poor Poor Pitiful Me'' as the album's first single.
``Singing on the road for a year really has helped ... and I've been using these ear monitors so you can hear yourself. It's like singing in the studio every night,'' she said. ``That helped a great deal with the confidence level as far as the singing.''
``Poor Poor Pitiful Me,'' written by Warren Zevon and a pop hit for Ronstadt in 1978, was a Top 5 country hit late last year for Clark. In it, she shook off the cool pose of ``Better Things to Do'' to play the comic victim of love.
Clark co-wrote the new single, ``Emotional Girl,'' in which the singer confesses: ``Underneath this cool exterior, a raging river flows.''
``I think it's important for people to see a well-rounded personality and not just one side of somebody,'' Clark said. ``This second album shows a little more of the other side of me.
``It shows vulnerability and sensitivity. I'm not the type of person that goes around beating people up and stuff. ... When someone hurts my feelings, instead of fighting back, I'll cry, so that's kind of how I am - I am an emotional girl.''
A native of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Clark says she acquired her Southern twang through years of listening to and imitating the records of Reba McEntire and Ricky Skaggs. Her grandparents were country singers in Quebec.
Obsessed with American country music, she moved to Nashville in 1987. Clark became a regular at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge - once the hangout of Grand Ole Opry stars Willie Nelson and Roger Miller - and got other gigs on touristy Demonbreun Street, a stone's throw from the Nashville music business and at the same time a world away.
``I played ... hoping that somebody on Music Row would hear my voice carrying down the street and give me a record deal,'' Clark said.
A producer from Florida heard her singing at Tootsie's, and passed a tape to Nashville manager Woody Bowles. He worked with her for several years before she signed with Mercury Records.
``Terri Clark'' sold over a million copies, boosted by hits ``When Boy Meets Girl,'' ``If I Were You'' and ``Suddenly Single.''
As a result, Clark spent more than 260 days in 1996 on the road doing shows. She also separated from her musician-husband Ted Stevenson.
``I can't see myself keeping the same pace I am right now for the next 10 years,'' Clark said. ``I'd kill myself.
``But I know this is something I can do now. I'm young, I'm enjoying it, it's fun, it's what I've always dreamed. I'm going to take advantage of the time I do have to do it and work as hard as I can and do as much as I can and make the best music that we can.''
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Country singer Terri Clark, a native of Alberta,by CNBCanada, says she acquired her Southern twang through years of
listening to and imitating records of Reba McEntire and Ricky
Scaggs. color.