01.25.2008
Little bit country, little bit rock ‘n’ roll
The limited-engagement tour is called “Two Worlds, Two Voices.”
The voices, each distinctive, each good in its own way, belong to Reba McEntire, a 33-year veteran of Nashville, new, old and in-between; and Kelly Clarkson, the first winner of American Idol, but don’t hold that against her. She’s much better now.
It’s a show that’s a little bit country, a little bit rock ’n’ roll — and more.
The tour is a smart bit of showbiz that’s designed to initially appeal to and pull from two separate musical demographics. There will be little in the way of staging, and the singers will share the same band. What you see and hear is what you get — and that’s what makes this science project fascinating.
McEntire, 52, has sold more than 50 million albums in a 33-year career that has earned her the moniker of Queen of Country Music. It’s a bit of a misnomer in that McEntire’s musical vision, to be polite, is restless; she long ago dismissed country-music tradition and cliche to make music the way that she wanted to make it. Her material has touched on multiple styles for the better part of 20 years, bending genres and plowing through expectations, opening doors that perhaps should have remained shut.
And her entertaining, ever involved shows became theatrical to the point that she was called the female equivalent of Garth Brooks — very much an accurate and double-edged description.
Clarkson, who is 25, is from the other rocky side of the musical tracks. She started off as pure wallpaper pop. She was a strong presence with a stronger voice, but she initially lacked identity and direction — not that it mattered. Millions of Idol fans embraced her somewhat manufactured pop pageantry and, with the help of the growing Idol empire, turned her into a successful act.
Clarkson sold millions of albums, won Grammy awards and American Music awards — and then grew up. With her latest two albums, she has taken control of her career and worked hard to shake off the Idol stigma of manufactured puppetry. She has taken to writing her own material, which is surprisingly strong, and her musical vision, filled with the melodic hooks of pop, driven by the energy of rock, stands on increasingly hard-edged ground — at least by mainstream standards.
But McEntire, with 31 albums under her rhinestone belt, is more, much more, than a country singer, no matter how far you stretch the definition.
She has appeared in numerous films. She starred in Reba, a TV sitcom that ran from 2001 to 2007. She appeared on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun to rave reviews and performed a one-off production of South Pacific at Carnegie Hall to strong reviews.
Singers are a dime a dozen; entertainers have long careers, and the infinitely amiable and likeable McEntire is an entertainer deluxe. She is also a savvy businesswoman; she and Narvel Blackstock, her husband, run Starstruck Entertainment which (surprise, surprise) recently took over Clarkson’s career.
This explains McEntire taking Clarkson under her musical wing and re-recording Clarkson’s “Because Of You” as a duet that became a hit country single and won a Grammy.
She and Clarkson also recorded an episode of Country Music Television’s Crossroads series live at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. McEntire understood that Clarkson can sing, that she is sexy and sassy and, more important, that she is wholesome and graceful, the girl-next-door made good — which makes for crossover success.
Another door magically opened for Clarkson, and all she had to do was show up and sing.
The common ground between McEntire and Clarkson is that each is determined to make music. Each is unafraid to take chances and leap boundaries. Each understands the value of a good song and the benefits of serving said song to the utmost. Each understands the difference between art and artistry.
McEntire and Clarkson are the same — but different.
And they will rest assured that they have done their job as long as people walk away from the show entertained and satisfied. And that is really what show business is all about.
That ears may be opened and horizons broadened is a bonus.