Focused on family, Trisha Yearwood pays Tulalip a visit

By Andy Rathbun
Herald Writer

Trisha Yearwood gets a bit nervous before taking the stage. She paints her nails without realizing it. She fiddles.

It's hard to imagine the country star in a state of anxiety. She has sold millions of albums, sung with Luciano Pavarotti in Italy, and performed at the Academy Awards. She's even dealt with the paparazzi, thanks to her 2005 marriage to Garth Brooks.

Still, before she takes the stage Sunday night at Tulalip Ampitheatre, she will in all likelihood be fidgeting.

"I get nervous if I'm waiting before I go on stage," she said. "I try to be busy. I'll be putting on the finishing touches of my makeup or clothes."

While her weekend show in Snohomish County isn't an outright rarity, Yearwood has played fewer dates than in years past. During her heyday in the 1990s, when she became the first female country singer to have a debut album go platinum, she would power through 250 dates a year.

Now, it's more like 40.

"I just decided after 17 years of going pretty hard, I have a life and I have children now," she said. "I'm a bonus mom with three teenagers (her stepchildren with Brooks). I don't want to sacrifice my time with them."

Still, she finds time for shows. During concerts, her set lists are made up largely of her biggest hits. She can't imagine playing a show without performing "She's in Love With the Boy" or "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)." She thinks, if she were a fan, what songs would she like to hear?

"I want to hear songs I can sing along with," she said.

Oddly enough, those songs might feel a bit more country than they did when she originally released them. In 1991, Yearwood was part of a wave of artists that continued moving Nashville closer to traditional pop. Now, country has inched even further in that direction, as groups like Sugarland blur the lines between the radio station dials.

So what is country music these days? Good question, Yearwood said.

"It's getting to a place that you can't always recognize if you're on a country station when you're flipping the stations," she said. "… I miss the mix. I think it's kind of become all one thing."

Granted, Yearwood isn't concerned only with music these days. Earlier this year, she put out "Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen." She said she was originally asked to write an autobiography, but passed on that, instead pulling together recipes from her childhood in Georgia for a cookbook.

The book stresses that good food might result from culinary skills, but it also brews up a sense of companionship.

"It's about sitting around the table together, and sometimes sitting there long after you finished eating and the food's getting cold," she said.

A blossoming cookbook career doesn't mean she's left recording behind. She put out an album of new material, "Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love," in 2007, and 2008 saw the release of at least her fourth greatest hits compilation, "Love Songs."

Those releases have doubtlessly satisfied fans, but her marriage to Brooks begs a question: Will the two ever put out a duets album?

Yearwood said the couple has talked about it for about 10 years. They won't record it until they can also tour together, however. Since they have a 12-year-old to care for at home, and Brooks remains in semi-retirement, they may not actually get to the project for years.

"When the youngest graduates, if there's still a demand, maybe he and I will go out," Yearwood said. "… That would be the time to put out a duet album."

And until then, fans can enjoy the three-time Grammy winner in concert by herself.


http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080801/ENT/448533865

As much as I enjoy Trisha by herself...do I really need to say how much I'd enjoy a duets tour?

Thanks Sandi! Yep, a duets cd and a tour to promote it would rock! I'll wait however long it takes for them to get around to it, but Ali needs to hurry up and graduate LOL!

With Garth on the ticket too, I'm afraid that I would never have any chance of getting tickets.

Great article Sandi, thanks for posting it.

Trisha Yearwood plays to welcoming crowd at Tulalip

By Andy Rathbun
Herald Writer

In the last few years, Trisha Yearwood the Celebrity has almost overshadowed Trisha Yearwood the Singer.

She married Garth Brooks, put out a cookbook -- "Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen" -- and became an occasional paparazzi target.

But tabloid fodder was often shoved aside Sunday night as Yearwood, 43, showcased her singing.

The country star aimed to please during a 90-minute set at Tulalip Amphitheatre, focusing on her hits while mixing in several newer songs.

As if to show she's been doing more than cooking in Garth's kitchen, she came out to the rollicking new track "Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love," off the 2007 album of the same name, slapping the beat on her thigh.

Then she quickly jumped into the way-back machine, churning through the midtempo country pop of "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)."

That 1995 song is as good as any at demonstrating Yearwood's appeal. She seems as approachable as the characters in her songs. Her voice, ripe and full and extraordinary, practically stands in contrast to the singer herself, who walked around backstage in a gray T-shirt before taking the stage in, yes, a red T-shirt.

The crowd seemed to skew female -- women who may have related to the singer, despite her fame. Before Yearwood took the stage, 19 people stood in line at the merchandise booth. Only one was a guy.

"She's empowering to women," Martie French, a Marysville resident, said.

While French was at the show with her 14-year-old daughter, Dorothy Goshorn had her husband in tow. Ernie Goshorn had bought his wife tickets to celebrate his wife's 65th birthday.

Good call, Ernie.

"She has a great voice," Dorothy Goshorn said of Yearwood. "I like everything."

And she played a little bit of everything from her 17-year recording career, including the breakthrough smash "She's in Love With the Boy" and the Oscar-nominated ballad "How Do I Live." The latter inspired a crowd sing-along.

Her persona was often on display, too, though. She buffered the space between most songs with a couple minutes of stage banter.

She made quips at the expense of her famous husband, noted that her tiny Georgia hometown's entire population was smaller than the concert's crowd of 1,900, and apologized early on for false notes -- she was suffering from a cold.

She didn't seem to hit any notes off-key, but one imagines even if she did, she would have been forgiven. At one point, someone shouted out an "I-love-you."

"I love you, too," Yearwood said.

"We love you more," came back a different voice.


http://heraldnet.com/article/20080804/NEWS01/934665715

Awesome posts Sandi ~ Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Yes a duets album would be awesome and can you even imagine a tour???

Maybe Allie will go to a two year tech school and that would be two years sooner we could see Garth and Trisha???

Thank you again Sandi for the posts!