Tanya Tucker photo courtesy of Kirt Webster & Assoc.
She’s been called one of the finest song stylists in any genre, a singer who owns the patent on any song she sings. Tanya Tucker’s inimitable vocal stylings and soulful performances have resulted in a string of hit albums and singles, garnered hundreds of honors and awards and made her a country music legend. On June 30th, Tanya releases her newest album, My Turn, a collection of songs done up like no one else could ever do. She takes on classic country hits originally recorded by men and turns them on their heads, transforming some of the most melancholy songs ever written into anthems of girl power and austere strength.
The Texas Tornado was born on October 10, 1958 in Seminole, Texas, located on the Panhandle Plains that locals call the land of "?tumbleweeds, pump-jacks, windmills and four open horizons." It was the perfect place for a tornado to show up.
Tanya was a precocious child. She cut her first tooth at 5 months, was driving the family Volkswagen around the yard by age 4 and riding horses before she turned 5. "One day I just started singing," she says. And by the time she was 8, she was copying everything she heard on the country radio: Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves and Hawkshaw Hawkins.
Tanya’s father, Beau Tucker, worked any job he could find to keep the family going. He was at various times a pilot, a prospector and a heavy equipment operator. The Tuckers were living in Wilcox, Arizona when Tanya started singing at talent contests and appearing on the stage with visiting celebrities like Mel Tillis and Ernest Tubb. Then, while Beau was working on a pipeline in St. George, Utah, Tanya landed a part in Robert Redford’s film Jeremiah Johnson. It didn’t turn out to be a show business break, but it helped convince Beau Tucker that stardom was possible, even if you had no industry contacts.
The family later moved to Las Vegas to be closer to an entertainment center. It was there that patrons of the local Veteran’s club started calling Tanya "Little Miss Cheatin’ Heart" because of her years-ahead-of-her-time vocal delivery. The Tuckers traveled to Nashville only to be met by closed doors and "come back when she’s older" comments.
But it was only a matter of time. Tanya was 13 when a Las Vegas songwriter introduced her to legendary record producer Billy Sherill. He soon signed her to Columbia Records and recorded the first big hit song: "Delta Dawn." Tanya followed that with "Love’s The Answer" and "Jamestown Ferry," and then came out of the chute with another megahit: "What’s Your Mama’s Name?" She was 15 years old, with a Country Music Association and Grammy nomination, a Greatest Hits package in the works and her face on the cover of the Rolling Stone.
In 1972, renowned music critic Nat Hentoff wrote in Cosmopolitan magazine: "Tanya’s voice is vibrato – full and tangy, with the kind of restless intensity that stays in your mind long after the song is done. This teenager has become one of the most dramatic presences in all of music, not just country." She also became a role model for female artists, a singer many industry insiders see as a future Hall of Famer: "When you listen to Tanya Tucker you hear spirit and independence. That’s what she’s given to country music," said music critic John Lomax III.
That public image and those hits caused MCA Records to offer Tanya what was then the most lucrative recording contract ever awarded in country music, 1.5 million dollars. The hits kept on coming: "Lizzie and the Rainman," "San Antonio Stroll," "Don’t Believe My Heart Can Stand Another You," "Texas When I Die" and "Pecos Promenade," to name but a few during her MCA years.
In 1986, she singed with Capitol Records and recorded over a decade of his including "Strong Enough to Bend," "Down To My Last Teardrop," "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane," "It’s a Little Too Late" and "Tell Me About It" with Delbert McClinton.
In 1991, she was named the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year and the following year she was Country Music Television’s Female Video Artist of the Year. That same year, "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" was named the Academy of Country Music’s Video of the Year. In 1996, she was one of the Top 10 overall most played artists of the year, and Capitol Records biggest-selling signed female country artist.
She was sought after for compilation recordings. In 1993, she recorded "Already Gone for Common Threads: The Songs of the Eagles," and the following year she sang a critically acclaimed duet with Little Richard, "Somethin’ Else" on Rhythm, Country & Blues. In 1995, she sang "Something for Come Together: America Salutes the Beatles" and in 1996 "Goin’ Nowhere and Gettin’ There Fast" for NASCAR: Hotter Than Asphalt. Walt Disney Records released her recording of "Someday My Prince Will Come" on The Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney in 1997.
The year 1994 was a big one for Tanya. She sang at the halftime of Super Bowl XXVIII, which had over a billion viewers, and at the opening ceremonies for the World Cup, broadcast to over two billion viewers.
A horse lover and champion rider, Tanya was also winning cutting contests. She took home top honors in the 1994 KSCS Fair Celebrity Cutting Championship and won the 1990 and 1996 Celebrity Championship.
1997 saw the release of Complicated, called one of her best by many critics. The Orange County Register noted: "It’s hard to believe that Tanya Tucker is releasing her 30th album after 25 years in the business and has yet to hit 40 years of age. Her music drips with gutsy realism, all delivered with a voice that combines equal parts sass and bravado with aching tenderness." Newsweek called Complicated "?one of the most stunning of her career."
On March 26, 1997, one day after the release of Complicated, Hyperion released Tanya’s New York Times best selling autobiography, Nickel Dreams. The Miami Herald called it compelling. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram called it up-front and honest. Booklist called it "?a treat" and Publisher’s Weekly said it was like a "?barroom chat with an old friend." Newsweek dubbed it, "?feisty and good-humored."
After several years devoted to heavy touring, Tanya released a self-titled album in 2002 on Tuckertime Records. Audiences welcomed signature Tanya performances on songs like "A Memory Like I’m Gonna Be" and "Old Weakness (Coming On Strong)." Billboard said: "Tanya Tucker’s throaty vocal has been sorely missed on contemporary country airwaves too often populated with female vocalists either blatantly going for crossover or trying out for cheerleader. Her first album in five years is a fine return to form with A-list writers and personality for days." In that year she was named to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.
In November 2005, Tanya released a DVD and CD, Tanya Tucker Live at Billy Bob’s, and contributed two songs to A Tribute to Bob Wills 100th Anniversary: "Heart to Heart Talk" and "Take Me Back to Tulsa," a trio with Porter Waggoner and Terry Bradshaw.
Also in 2005, she released a new book, 100 Ways to Beat the Blues, on Fireside, a division of Simon & Schuster. The book includes tips on pulling yourself out of the dumps from Tanya’s friends, including Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee, Roseanne, Burt Reynolds and Wynonna.
It was a short jump from Tuckertime to Tuckerville. The feisty, good-natured star Newsweek wrote found herself welcoming fans into her home via one of 2006’s hit reality shows: Welcome to Tuckerville. On The Learning Channel, Welcome to Tuckerville is an in-depth, behind-the-scenes visit with the star. Fans followed along with Tanya on tour, working her horses, playing with her large family of dogs (including a white Lab given to her by Kevin Costner) and, of course, her irrepressible and talented children, daughters Presley and Layla and son Grayson. The private individual that the fans meet in Tuckerville has perhaps been best described by noted music historian Robert Oermann in his 1993 book, Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music. "Tanya has a splendid sense of humor and a likable no-bull personality that add a lot to her undeniable charisma." Tanya is currently filming episodes for a new reality show.
In late 2006, Beau Tucker died. Without her father and the man who guided her entire career, Tanya summoned every bit of that plucky courage she had become so famous for and recorded a new album with him in mind. She says that her daddy would have got a kick out of hearing her sing the songs on My Turn, songs he loved and songs she grew up singing. On the CD’s cover Tanya holds his hat closely, a powerful image befitting of such a powerful album. "I picked the songs my daddy always wanted me to sing," explains Tucker. "This is really a tribute to him because he was with me throughout my entire career. He’s now with God above but I know he’s watching over me still and loving these songs and this record."
Working with producer Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakam, Michelle Shocked), Tucker selected songs from her childhood that inspired her career and completely transformed their delivery and meaning with her inimitable earthy, passionate and unflinching style. Tucker reworked classics such as Buck Owens’ "Love’s Gonna Live Here" (featuring Jim Lauderdale), "You Don’t Know Me" by Eddy Arnold, George Jones’ "Walk Through This World With Me" and even invited The Grascals to join her on a flip-flop of the Conway Twitty/Loretta Lynn duet "After The Fire Is Gone." Bluegrass stars Rhonda and Darrin Vincent also appear on the album and producer Anderson does double duty, playing guitar on each track.
The power of Tucker’s recordings is palpable as she wrings new, unexpected and tough-as-nails emotion from lyrics like Merle Haggard’s "Ramblin’ Man"; "But I don't let no no man tie me down, And I never get too old to get around. I wanna die along the highway and rot away, Like some old high-line pole, Rest this ramblin' fever in my soul." And when Tucker sings "Is Anyone Going To San Antone," she turns it from heartbreak to acerbic; "Wish he hadn't done me that way, Sleepin’ under a table at a road side stop, Well a woman could wake up dead, Still it seems a warmer than it did, Sleepin’ in your king size bed."
Tanya will launch a North American tour in August, with dates confirmed through the end of the year.