THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300399
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
TYPE: MUSIC REVIEW
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Shows depicting the life and songs of Patsy Cline seem to abound, tributes to the first major female artist to cross the line between country and pop.
Lisa Layne showed up at College of the Albemarle Tuesday with her tribute to the legendary performer - and a very good one it was.
Thanks to costuming and make-up, the look was there, the long-haired, curly-haired redhead transformed nicely into the singer with coal black hair.
Vocally, the sound was almost there. Patsy may have reached lower registers but, if memory and old records serve correctly, she did not reach the high notes Layne hit.
Picture Ethel Merman singing country and you have a fairly decent idea of this particular interpretation of Patsy Cline.
The show concentrates on the music but there is a fair chunk of biographical material, most of it familiar.
The ``biographer'' in this production is a show unto himself.
Alan Barnes, who portrays a deejay at WKLM radio in Winchester, Va., where Cline first brassed her way into show business, uses his ``golden-voice-of-radio'' to tell the Cline tale, making her appear rather saintly.
The singer was warmhearted - that point is pushed - but she could also be raw and raunchy. That point is ignored and rightfully so, since the show is about her music and the public perception of Patsy Cline.
Her family appreciates the squeaky-clean interpretation. The production is sanctioned by the Patsy Cline Estate.
``They loved the show. Charlie Dick (her ex-husband) had a big hand in it,'' Michael Lauricella said after the performance. He is musical director and the keyboardist portraying Floyd Cramer.
At one point Dick provides a voice-over, portraying Owen Bradley who was instrumental in making a star of P.C.
Bradley practically forced Cline to sing ``Walkin' After Midnight.'' She didn't like the piece, feeling it sounded too pop. The rest is country music history.
So are these hits: ``Faded Love,'' ``Always,'' ``Back in Baby's Arms'' and, of course, ``Crazy.''
The audience, crazy about Layne's voice and interpretation, offered a standing ovation for the singer, and Barnes as Little Big Man, whose ``get-the-audience-involved'' version of ``Oh, Susannah,'' was a hoot.
Praise, also, for the band, The Rhythmaires, excellent instrumentalists and back-up singers.
Layne's singing was excellent, at times goose-bumpy, whether performing the familiar Cline hits or the other types of songs the legendary performer added in her shows - gospel and pop.
``A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline'' is a brisk, exhilarating walk. ILLUSTRATION: MUSIC REVIEW
"A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline," starring Lisa Layne, ALan Barnes
and The Rhythmaires. Last Tuesday at College of the Albemarle.
Lisa Layne
Depicting life of Patsy Cline
by CNB