HEART, MIND and VOICE
Country star MARTINA MCBRIDE brings her legacy to the Garde Thursday
At a time when the “spin cycle” of popularity for any given entertainer seems to be measured in days or weeks, the success of country singer Martina McBride’s 2016 “Reckless” album has been refreshing. After all, the release was her 13th studio album in a 26 (and counting) year career, and McBride seems to stay effortlessly current, relevant and true to her own artistic vision.
This long-term chart-happy history is rooted in McBride’s innately appealing pop-country style, which helped pioneer a movement in Nashville in the ’90s, through she employs hints of honky tonk and, oh, yeah, that monstrously powerful delivery system called her voice.
“Reckless” doesn’t exactly break new ground; it’s certainly anchored in a smooth melodicism that has earned four Country Music Association “Female Vocalist of the Year” awards and 14 Grammy nominations. At the same time, there are moments on “Reckless,” as per tunes like “It Ain’t Pretty” and “Everybody Wants to be Loved,” when McBride and co-producers Dann Huff (who has also worked with Keith Urban) and Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift) sound at the cutting edge of modern Nashville record-making.
In short, “Reckless” is a fine addendum to a career that’s produced a sustained stream of hits such as “Wild Angels,” “How Far,” “Where Would You Be,” “I’m Gonna Love You Through It,” “Broken Wing,” “Anyway” and “Independence Day.”
It’s this legacy that McBride presents Thursday in New London when she sings at the Garde Arts Center. But it’s more than just a Billboard track record that’s made McBride an enduring artist. Her image also reflects a variety of qualities ranging from successful Mom and cookbook author to her Team Music is Love charitable organization, in which she partners with her fans to raise funds and awareness for
causes such as hunger relief, cancer research and halting domestic violence.
“I think it’s all connected,” says McBride recently. “At every point in my life, I’ve chosen songs to record that I relate to as a person and woman. But I also think about the listeners, and I want songs they can related to that maybe help connect the dots in their lives.”
She added, regarding how philanthropy and her connection with fans each play a part in her recordings and concerts, “There’s a joy that comes from being able to inspire people with your music and also to use this career as a platform to help others.”
Maybe the finest and/or most popular song from McBride’s catalog that reflects these values and sentiments is the 2007 hit “Anyway.” Importantly, “Anyway” is also the first tune McBride had a hand in writing (along with Brad Warren and Brett Warren). Partly inspired by Mother Teresa’s humanitarian efforts and intended as a reminder to herself and listeners that faith and love are incredibly powerful, “Anyway” was a huge hit and helped establish McBride as an activist artist. And even the hardest heart would have a hard time not being moved by her vocal line in the final minute of the song, coming out of the bridge, when she blasts into an earth-crumbling promise to “sing, love and dream anyway.”
“What you hear at the end of the song was in fact one take,” McBride says — just in case any skeptics out there might suggest the wonders of modern recording technology could provide multiple overdub opportunities to get that sort of perfection. It was perfection — but at the same time McBride thinks there’s a charm to the human-frailty element in making records. “I think it’s important to leave little flaws to keep the performance human. The old records we grew up with have some flaws in pitch, for example, but in a way that’s what makes them relatable. You can try to make things too perfect, but it can take the soul out of a performance.”
And while, as with “Anyway,” McBride occasionally writes songs, she also actively enjoys the process of finding material from other writers. One in particular is worth noting. She had a huge hit with her recording of “Independence Day,” an indelible 1993 tune written by Gretchen Peters about domestic violence from the perspective of a child. It’s a song that in some ways anticipated a lot of the long-overdue women’s empowerment movement.
When it came out, though, despite the important and oft-overlooked subject matter, McBride and her record label had to battle mainstream — and very conservative — country radio to get airtime. Fortunately, times change, and the song was a massive success. In 2014, Rolling Stone named “Independence Day” the 77th best country song of all time.
McBride says she was “blessed” to find “Independence Day.” She says, “My producer at the time, Paul Worley, played me a demo of the song, and I loved it immediately. I’d recorded one of Gretchen’s songs called ‘When You are Old’ on my first album and ended up recording two more of her songs later. I love her writing. Sometimes a song just ‘finds’ the right singer, and I think that was meant to be.”
In that spirit, McBride says she enjoys the process of choosing tunes to sing by other writers as much as she does the act of writing herself.
“I love looking for songs,” she says. “There’s nothing like that feeling when you find a song you can relate to — and that feels like your very own.”