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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Martina McBride finds fresh inspiration for 10th album

New producer helps 'Shine' fresh light on recording process
By Peter Cooper | THE TENNESSEAN • March 29, 2009
She smiled through the whole thing, but Martina McBride was getting worried.
Her promising 1990s had led to a new century filled with accolades and female vocalist of the year prizes and big hit singles. And then things were different.
"I made Evolution (1997) and Emotion (1999), and for me that was such a creative time," said McBride, whose new album, Shine, was released last Tuesday. "After that, I felt like I missed out on some of that creativity. I felt a little lost, to be honest. With the Martina album (2003), the process was a little frustrating, and it was hard to find inspiration. It's hard to find songs that are different, after you've done so many."
McBride reacted to that by recording an album of classic country covers called Timeless, an endeavor that allowed her to indulge her love of traditional country and to step off of what felt increasingly like a contemporary country treadmill. And then, she decided to fully engage in her next album by sitting in the producer's chair for the first time.
"Right, that was Waking Up Laughing, where I decided to take it all on myself," she said. "And in hindsight, that was ahugeundertaking. It was honestly kind of overwhelming."
And so McBride found herself flustered, needing to record a 10th album and also needing some kind of inspiration and perspective. She called Dann Huff, who had played on her albums and who had produced smashes for Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and others.
Before Waking Up Laughing, each of McBride's albums had been produced by Paul Worley, and the change for McBride was significant. She and Huff co-produced the album, a situation that allowed McBride all the creative input she wanted but also allowed her enough creative distance to focus on her vocal performances.
"I love Paul and love the work that I've done with Paul, but it was time to try something new," she said. "Paul and Dann approach things completely differently: Dann is very fluid, and he goes inside the tracks to create musical hooks. He's got such an ear for a hook that it's crazy. In the studio, this one felt new and fun and fresh, like the way I felt with Evolution. This was brand new."
Brand new isn't often something that's sought by highly successful veterans of the music industry. McBride broke in to the mainstream in 1992, and since then she has established a recognizable and profitable pattern. Platinum success with empowerment songs such as "Independence Day," "Safe in the Arms of Love" and "Love's the Only House" meant that songwriters and publishers tended to pitch her a slew of similar songs, unless they were pitching power ballads in line with "Where Would You Be" and "Concrete Angel."
Enter "I'm Trying," a song about=2 0alcohol and marriage that was written by Darrell Scott and Tia Sillers.
"That song came to me on a demo, and I immediately was so moved by it," she said. "On the demo, it was just Darrell singing and playing guitar, and the song was an intimate conversation between two people. I wanted that intimacy to show through in the recording, and I had no idea how we were going to beat the demo."
McBride and Huff determined to record the song with little adornment. Accompanied only by former Bering Strait member Illya Toshinsky, McBride sang the song live in the studio, seven or eight times.
"Technically, I learned to sing it better as I went along," she said. "But the first time I sang it, it had a vulnerability that I never got back. We went with the first take."
These days, McBride sounds unworried about the way her career is going, and grateful about the way it has all gone.
"Were there times I wanted things to be more successful, or to be an automatic add on radio when I put a song out? Sure. And sometimes I feel I've earned that. But the bottom line is that I've had a 17-year-career. So the light has shone just the right amount. If it had been more, more, more, it might have burned out quicker."

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