THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505050077
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
YOU CAN SEE them on The Nashville Network - Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, The Mann Sisters.
Cathey and Debbie Mann, well-known to area country music fans, will show their ``It Ain't One Way'' video on one of TNNs most popular offerings, the Wildhorse Saloon.
That date will be announced later. Meanwhile, they have these dates, making May an important month:
Sunday, the Chesapeake duo opens for Billy Ray Cyrus at the Naval Amphibious Base; May 14, at the Ocean View Beach Festival, they get things going for Confederate Railroad; May 21, the Manns open for Willie Nelson at the Chesapeake Jubilee.
During the past two years, they opened for Porter Wagoner, The Mavericks, Restless Heart, Tracy Lawrence and Faith Hill.
In December, they performed in the White House for congressional staff members and their families.
The Wildhorse performance is expected shortly to display the video produced by Bob White, who also helmed the Music City News Awards as well as videos for such stars as Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash.
Greg Crutcher, the director, won a Dove Award in 1992 for directing Steven Curtis Chapman's ``The Great Adventure.'' He directs TNNs ``Video Album Hour'' and was nominated, by Music City News, for Video of the Year for Clinton Gregory's ``Master of Illusion.''
His newest artists have been performing somewhere in Hampton Roads since they were pre-schoolers.
Their 1991 national debut single, ``I've Had Enough,'' did well enough, but ``It Ain't One Way,'' the title tune from their CD, is doing better.
Overseas radio stations are giving it heavy play and, recently, an order for another 5,000 copies of the record came in for distribution in Australia, Belgium, Holland, France and England.
Not bad for a couple of home-grown gals who once said they loved performing but were not ambitious enough to stray too far from Hampton Roads.
Success is being thrust upon them, and they are approaching it cautiously.
``A lot of acts get this kind of momentum going, but they fizzle out,'' said Cathey, the younger of the two. ``I don't want that to happen to us.''
If there should be a slight fizzle, The Mann Sisters can rely on their medical training to keep food on the table.
Cathey, a registered nurse, has already put her uniform in mothballs, but Debbie, a licensed practical nurse, still works with Eure Professional Staffing in Chesapeake.
The Mann Sisters, graduates of Indian River High School, where they sang in the chorus - they still live in the neighborhood, just a few houses apart - started singing gospel at the tender ages of 5 and 6, encouraged by their mother.
From time to time, their sisters, Retta and Karen, performed with them.
``Out of the four of us, Cathey and I seemed to connect,'' Debbie said. ``We're both nurses, we each have a boy and a girl, and we were rowdier.''
In the '80s, Debbie performed with such well-known local bands as Midnight Fury and Thunder Road.
The latter was, for many years, the house band at Michael's in Virginia Beach. In 1992, Debbie was singing with the band at Michael's, while Cathey waited table there.
``I always thought - wouldn't it be wonderful if we could sing together,'' said Cathey who, later that year, became the driving force and featured singer of the band Boots & Lace.
Debbie helped on keyboards, and that marked the beginning of The Mann Sisters as a featured act.
They did perform together, in their teens, on ``So You Want To Be a Star,'' an old Nashville Network offering.
Recently, The Mann Sisters signed with Intersection Records, a hometown company that encourages them to do things their way.
``We went to Tangier Island,'' said Debbie. ``Steve, Cathey's husband, is a pilot. He flew up there and dropped us off. A lot of songs came from the three days on that isolated piece of land. We were there in the dead of winter.''
The girls wrote eight of the 10 songs in the album ``It Ain't One Way,'' a name that describes their style.
``We do ballads, uptempo and a touch of gospel,'' Cathey said. ``That's the reason for the name of the album.'' MEMO: The Mann Sisters open for Billy Ray Cyrus at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Eagle
Haven Festival Grounds, Naval Amphibious Base. They open for Confederate
Railroad at 1:15 p.m. May 14 at the Ocean View Beach Festival and, May
21, open for Willie Nelson at the Chesapeake Jubilee. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The Mann Sisters of Chesapeake will open for Billy Ray Cyrus on
Sunday at the Naval Amphibious Base.
by CNB