 |
She is her own concept.
Fans attending the superstar's Singer's Diary show in Skyreach Centre Saturday night aren't going to see a mere country concert. It's a two-act Broadway-style spectacular - she even refers to it as a "play" - based on the story of her life. It starts when McEntire was "discovered" in 1974 by a cowboy singer named Red Steagall. Sporting huge, flaming red hair and a belt buckle the size of a dinner plate, she sang the American national anthem at a rodeo in home-town Oklahoma City.
From there, Singer's Diary spans a remarkable career that includes 35 albums, 40 million copies sold and a list of movie and TV credits too numerous to mention here.
Since landing an MCA record contract in 1976 at the age of 21, McEntire has never looked back - until now. "Yeah, I'm the concept all right," she laughs during a phone interview yesterday morning.
She quickly switches gears to a more sober tone.
"It was really weird doing it at first and it was hard for me to do it because of the content, thinking about the plane crash in '91 when I lost my band members and my tour manager. That wasn't only hard on me, it was hard on my crew, because a lot of them are still with me. That's hard every night to bring that up, especially when their faces come up on the big screen. Red Steagall saw the play for the first time on Sunday night in Austin, Texas. He almost had to get up and walk out. It was very moving."
Singer's Diary was actually the idea of her husband-manager Narvel Blackstock. He put it all together while McEntire was in Canada filming the Secret of Giving Christmas special. She resisted, at first.
"I was tired of talking about myself," she says. "I just wanted to put 17, 18 songs together and make it into a sort of a play. Narvel talked me into doing it as an autobiographical show. It worked out very well."
Lots has been left out - flat tires on the tour bus just don't translate well to the stage - but all the major career points are there, plus all the hits, of course. If you want more, read her autobiography, Reba: My Story.
Singer's Diary, she says, is swell preparation for her big Broadway debut: starring in Annie Get Your Gun in New York. The show opens in January.
"This has let me know that I can do a play," she says. "I've never been in a play in my life. I didn't do anything in college or high school. So the jump from Singer's Diary to Annie Get Your Gun is a huge step for me, and evidently, the folks at Broadway thought I could handle it. They've been at me to do it for several years now."
No matter what project this red-haired force of nature undertakes, it all has to come back to the music.
"I can talk to you all day long, but once I sing to you, for some reason, I touch your heart. And that's a God-given gift that I never want to quit being a part of.
"I've heard great singers that just don't touch me and I've heard mediocre singers that I can listen to and just start crying because they have just wrapped their arms around my heart. I don't know why that is."
You either have it or you don't, she figures.
As for all the trappings that have grown around her heartstring-tugging voice, fans may wonder: Does she long for the simplicity of a bare stage, microphone and nothing but the music? Does she ever get tired of having to make 10 costume changes a night? Short answer: "No."
McEntire goes on, "I love the bells and whistles. That's what I want to go see when I go to a concert, a show, a play, whatever. I want all my senses to be aroused.
"I've always been a huge fan of Madonna's huge production. Sometimes they're a little overboard for me, a little long.
"But I admire her for going the full gamut on production, costuming, dancing. Cher is way over the top also. Everybody's always said I'm over the top, so I feel like I'm in pretty good company."