Post by erik on Mar 2, 2024 18:26:31 GMT -5
Martina McBride, one of the leading lights of the female country music boom of the 1990's, is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with her 2014 album Everlasting.
EVERLASTING (Martina McBride; Vinyl Recordings; 2014)
Born in Sharon, Kansas in July 1966, Martina McBride was one of the leading artists in the biggest boom of female singers that the country music genre had ever known during the 1990’s. And like many of her fellow 1990’s female country singers, while she was raised on a traditional country music diet of Patsy Cline and Connie Smith, Martina also took her cue from the edgier West Coast country-rock of the 1970’s as personified by Linda Ronstadt. Martina made her debut in 1992 with the album The Time Has Come; and as with many of her fellow female singers of the time, a wide-ranging voice made her a presence on country radio for most of the rest of the 1990’s, with occasional hits crossing over to the op music side as well.
The new millennium, however, brought an end to Martina and her peers’ large-scale presence on country radio; and although she continued to have hits, they became smaller and smaller over time. A combination of post-9/11 hyper-patriotism (as parlayed by Toby Keith and others), the so-called “Bro Country” movement of the early 2010’s, and a generalized resistance to female artists on the part of country radio conglomerates forced Martina out towards the margins. She nevertheless persisted; and in 2014, she released Everlasting, an album consisting primarily of 1960’s and 1970’s pop, rock, and R&B standards.
With Don Was, the producer of such artists as Bonnie Raitt, assisting, Martina delivered a collection that eschewed much of her country sound in favor of a 21st century pop updating of a classic era in American popular music. The collection included such highly prized favorites as “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” (a big hit for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes in late 1972); “Come See About Me” (the Supremes’ third #1 hit, from late 1964); “Suspicious Minds” (Elvis’ eighteenth and final #1 hit); “Bring It On Home To Me” (the 1962 Sam Cooke classic); and “What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted?” (a 1966 Motown hit from Jimmy Ruffin). Most notable, however, was the inclusion of a 1960’s folk ballad by Fred Neil, “Little Bit Of Rain”, which was likely unknown among most of Martina’s fans, unless, like Martina, ever the studious follower of music history, they had heard the shimmering psychedelic folk-pop version (as “Just A Little Bit Of Rain”) done by Linda on her very first album, with the Stone Poneys, in 1967. Martina also sang a duet with Kelly Clarkson on the Etta James classic “In The Basement”.
Everlasting, released in April 2014, didn’t spawn any hits, but it did make it up to #1 on Billboard’s Country Album Chart, and #7 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, making it a far better success for Martina than could be expected in a country music world that was shunning women left and right. She has since released two albums, 2016’s Reckless]/I], and the 2018 Christmas holiday collection It’s The Holiday Season; and in 2016, she saluted her hero Linda Ronstadt when Linda got her Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
EVERLASTING (Martina McBride; Vinyl Recordings; 2014)
Born in Sharon, Kansas in July 1966, Martina McBride was one of the leading artists in the biggest boom of female singers that the country music genre had ever known during the 1990’s. And like many of her fellow 1990’s female country singers, while she was raised on a traditional country music diet of Patsy Cline and Connie Smith, Martina also took her cue from the edgier West Coast country-rock of the 1970’s as personified by Linda Ronstadt. Martina made her debut in 1992 with the album The Time Has Come; and as with many of her fellow female singers of the time, a wide-ranging voice made her a presence on country radio for most of the rest of the 1990’s, with occasional hits crossing over to the op music side as well.
The new millennium, however, brought an end to Martina and her peers’ large-scale presence on country radio; and although she continued to have hits, they became smaller and smaller over time. A combination of post-9/11 hyper-patriotism (as parlayed by Toby Keith and others), the so-called “Bro Country” movement of the early 2010’s, and a generalized resistance to female artists on the part of country radio conglomerates forced Martina out towards the margins. She nevertheless persisted; and in 2014, she released Everlasting, an album consisting primarily of 1960’s and 1970’s pop, rock, and R&B standards.
With Don Was, the producer of such artists as Bonnie Raitt, assisting, Martina delivered a collection that eschewed much of her country sound in favor of a 21st century pop updating of a classic era in American popular music. The collection included such highly prized favorites as “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” (a big hit for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes in late 1972); “Come See About Me” (the Supremes’ third #1 hit, from late 1964); “Suspicious Minds” (Elvis’ eighteenth and final #1 hit); “Bring It On Home To Me” (the 1962 Sam Cooke classic); and “What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted?” (a 1966 Motown hit from Jimmy Ruffin). Most notable, however, was the inclusion of a 1960’s folk ballad by Fred Neil, “Little Bit Of Rain”, which was likely unknown among most of Martina’s fans, unless, like Martina, ever the studious follower of music history, they had heard the shimmering psychedelic folk-pop version (as “Just A Little Bit Of Rain”) done by Linda on her very first album, with the Stone Poneys, in 1967. Martina also sang a duet with Kelly Clarkson on the Etta James classic “In The Basement”.
Everlasting, released in April 2014, didn’t spawn any hits, but it did make it up to #1 on Billboard’s Country Album Chart, and #7 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, making it a far better success for Martina than could be expected in a country music world that was shunning women left and right. She has since released two albums, 2016’s Reckless]/I], and the 2018 Christmas holiday collection It’s The Holiday Season; and in 2016, she saluted her hero Linda Ronstadt when Linda got her Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.