Martina McBride photo courtesy of frontpagepublicity.com.
Aug. 15, 2008 — With eight or nine songs already recorded, Martina McBride is well on her way to completing her next studio album, which she hopes will make it to market around January or February.
She feels like it will show a new facet to her as an artist, in great part because she shook up her recording situation before she started it. After self-producing her last two studio albums, Timeless and Waking Up Laughing, Martina turned to Dann Huff for the first time to co-produce it. Known for directing albums by Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes and Rascal Flatts, among others, he’s also a respected guitar player, and in fact, he’s contributed in that role to every one of her previous studio albums.
As a result, the sessions have a new atmosphere to them even while they feel comfortable and familiar, and the setting has brought a bit of a change to her music. But Martina has a hard time putting her finger on what it is that’s different.
"All I know is to me, it feels exciting," she told The Orange County Register. "It feels different for me but not [so] far left that it's gonna be strange. It still feels very, very much like me. I've got a strong opinion and voice, and all that stuff is still there. But it just feels musically like a step forward. I don't know how else to describe it."
In the meantime, she’s taken another step forward on her current outdoors tour. She’s made a few changes in the show from her current CD/DVD, Martina McBride: Live In Concert, but the most important part is she’s taking more command in what she feels is her first serious attempt at headlining.
"This is the first time we've really put some money and some thought into real production," she said. "I still believe that it's all about the connection between the audience and the singer and the song, no matter what you have up there. That's the most important thing. But I think for the first time, we have a beautiful show to look at and a lot of production values that are comparable to a lot of acts that are headlining on the road.
"For the first time we have a production that is equal to, or backs up, the songs. That was really a huge step forward for us in deciding to really up that. You can call other tours we've done headlining tours because we've been the headline act, but I think this one feels like the first one where we've been competitive."
The tour, which also features Jack Ingram and Chris Young, is in Phoenix on Friday and Irvine, Calif., on Saturday.
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