At an early age Martina McBride was introduced to country music through her father. She began listening to artists like Patsy Cline, Connie Smith, and Linda Ronstadt whose music greatly inspired her, and by the age of eight she was singing background vocals in her father’s band. After performing in several rock bands around the Kansas area, she married a studio engineer, John McBride, and moved with him to Nashville. While in Nashville she secured a gig selling souvenirs for Garth Brooks and also worked on recording a demo tape that her husband produced. The demo tape gained her a recording contract with RCA in 1991 and after she was signed to the label Garth Brooks invited her as an opening act on his tour.
McBride’s debut album “The Time Has Come” was released in 1992 and contained country folk and honky tonk inspired songs as opposed to more pop oriented songs that would be a prominent characteristic on her later albums. The album did well on the charts reaching the No. 49 position on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The single from the album “The Time Has Come” reached the No.23 slot on the charts. Her second studio album “The Way That I Am”, which was released in 1993 also did exceptionally well on the charts and is considered her breakthrough album. The album contained two singles that made it in the top 10 on the charts. Her single “My Baby Loves Me” reached the No. 2 spot on the US Hot Country Songs charts. Her other single from the album “Independence Day” earned a Grammy Award for Best Country Song and she was able to perform this song at the 1995 Grammys ceremony.
McBride’s third album “ Wild Angels” produced her first No. 1 hit, which was the title track from the album. The album also consisted of the singles “Safe in the Arms of Love”, “Phones are Ringin’ All Over Town”, and “Swingin’ Doors”. In 1997 McBride released her fourth album “Evolution”, which was incredibly successful consisting of four top 10 singles and later becoming certified double platinum after selling over two million records. The album also won her the Country Music Association Award for “Female Vocalist of the Year” and the opportunity to perform for President Bill Clinton.
In 2003 McBride released the album “Martina”, which showed her stepping into more pop oriented territory. Her hit single “This One’s for the Girls” featured the singers Faith Hill and Carolyn Dawn Johnson, and was the cause of her earning her first No. 1 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts. Each album that McBride releases always manages to do stellar in the charts even if she veers from her traditional musical styles. Her 2005 album “Timeless” showed her going back to her influences by covering songs by country legends like Han Williams and Loretta Lynn.
McBride is extolled by other musicians who are constantly asking to work with her. She has collaborated with such musicians as Jimmy Buffet, Clint Black, Jim Brickman, and Andy Griggs. She has also embarked on multiple headlining tours that usually sell out and has shared the bill with such musicians as Sarah McLachlan, George Strait, and Gladys Knight. As of 2014 McBride has been nominated 17 times for the Female Vocalist award from the Country Music Association and has been nominated for 14 Grammy awards.
One of the most successful avenues down which female solo artists have ventured, in terms of commercial appeal, over the past couple of decades - in the U.S., at least - has been that of country pop, taking the basic sonic palette and, often, lyrical style of the former genre and presented it in such a way that it’s been genuinely commercially viable, blurring the lines between typical pop fare and the often niche nature of the country style. The Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill and Shania Twain all stand as testament to this particular phenomenon, and the same can also be said of Martina McBride, who has now sold in excess of fourteen million albums over the course of a career that has now spanned more than a quarter of a century. She remains a popular live performer in the U.S., too, even if her crossover appeal has never quite translated properly here in Britain; flanked by a full band, she continues to tour her homeland and play career-spanning sets that include plenty of fresh material - she’s no nostalgia act, as her latest album, last April’s Everlasting, proved through collaborations with the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Gavin DeGraw. She played London’s Indigo2 back in 2009, and toured in Ireland, where she maintains a cult following; regional dates in the UK, though, remain few and far between.
Joeg_67
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