|
 
McBride, Martina
Date of birth: July 29,
1966-
Profession: Country-music
singer
Address: P.O. Box 291627,
Nashville, TN 37229-1627
Known for her powerhouse vocals and
poignant songs, Martina McBride is one of the preeminent female
singers on the country-music scene. While her recordings are generally
considered contemporary country, she has earned the admiration of
traditionalists for her obvious appreciation of the roots of country
music. Since the debut of her first recording, in 1992, she has sold
almost eight million albums and has seen six of her songs reach the
top of the country-music charts. In such songs as "Independence
Day," "A Broken Wing," "Cheap Whiskey," and
"Concrete Angel," she has addressed such social problems as
domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and child abuse. In doing so she has
distinguished herself from many other country singers and perturbed or
even angered some countrymusic fans as well. McBride, who does not
write songs, has maintained that she chooses only material with which
she feels comfortable. "I've always had a very strong sense of
self, even as a kid," she told Kay West for Country Music
(August- September 2003). "It was my upbringing, and I am really
grateful for that. It has led me through the paths of my career.
Looking back, there were a couple of times I was asked to do things I
was not real comfortable with or didn't feel suited me, and I just
said no, that's not me. It comes down to knowing yourself, and what is
right for you, as an artist, as a professional and as a person."
By her own account, unlike Faith Hill, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, and
various other female country performers, McBride does not aspire to
crossover success, although some of her music has appeared on the
adult-contemporary and pop charts. "I never feel restricted by
[country] music," she told Margo Whitmire for Billboard
(September 27, 2003). "And I don't necessarily have the desire to
be a bigger celebrity than I already am. I love country music, and I
love being known as a country music artist."
One of the four children of Daryl and
Jeanne Schiff, the singer was born Martina Mariea Schiff on July 29,
1966 in Medicine Lodge, Kansas; she grew up nearby, on the 400-acre
family dairy farm, outside Sharon (population 200). She has an older
brother, Steve, an older sister, Gina, and younger brother, Marty.
Martina became a fan of traditional country music at an early age, and
at age seven she began singing and playing keyboards at local clubs
and dances with her father's country- rock band, the Schifters. By the
time she reached high school, she was the group's lead singer as well
as keyboardist. (Her brother Marty played guitar-he is now a member of
her tour band-and her mother worked the soundboard.) She has named
Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Rickie Lee Jones, Aretha Franklin, Lefty
Frizzell, K.T. Oslin, George Strait, and Linda Ronstadt among her
favorite singers. After she graduated from high school (in a class of
10), in about 1984, McBride spent one semester in college before
dropping out to pursue a career in music. She worked at a local Dairy
Queen for a while, then began touring Kansas with various country
bands. She moved to Hutchinson and later lived in Wichita, where she
gained recognition on the local music scene; in 1990 she settled in
Nashville with her husband, John McBride, a sound engineer and
production manager, whom she had married in 1988. There she waited
tables and made demos while her husband worked for such stars as the
singer and bandleader Charlie Daniels and the country musician Ricky
Van Shelton. After John McBride became Garth Brooks's production
manager, he helped Martina get a job selling T-shirts for the tour, so
that they could travel together. At the end of 1991, Martina signed a
contract with RCA, and soon afterward she became Brooks's opening act.
McBride's debut album, The Time Has Come (1992), spent six months on
the country-album Top 50 charts.
The title track, released as her first
single, remained on the charts for five months; her next two singles,
"That's Me" and "Cheap Whiskey," also from The
Time Has Come, nearly reached the Top 40. With her second album, she
made her mark in country music. Released in 1993, The Way That I Am
contains the singles "My Baby Loves Me the Way That I Am,"
"Life #9," and "Independence Day," all of which
received heavy airplay and helped sales of the album to exceed 500,000
copies. "My Baby Loves Me" rose to number two on the country
chart, and "Life #9" to number six. The song and video
"Independence Day" deal with a battered wife who takes
justice into her own hands; they aroused some controversy and upset
some listeners. Nevertheless, the song was a hit and became McBride's
signature song. The title track of McBride's third album, Wild Angels
(1995), was her first number-one hit. The record also offered the
single "Safe in the Arms of Love," which climbed to number
four, and a cover version of Delbert McClinton's "Two More
Bottles of Wine." McBride's next effort, Evolution (1997), became
her first Top 10 album on the country chart, selling more than three
million copies. The duet she sang with Jim Brickman on it,
"Valentine," was a Top 10 country hit and, in addition,
crossed over to become her first big single on the adultcontemporary
chart, moving to number three. Evolution spawned two number-two
country hits, "Happy Girl" and "Whatever You Say,"
and two number-one singles, "A Broken Wing" and "Wrong
Again." In 1998 McBride joined the rock musician Bob Seger to
sing "Chances Are," which was included on the soundtrack to
the film Hope Floats. The song received considerable airplay on pop
and adultcontemporary stations. Also that year McBride became the
first country star to join the popular annual concert tour Lilith
Fair, which featured female singers and female-led bands, and she
recorded a collec tion of holiday songs, White Christmas. Her next
album, Emotion (1999), contains the lead single "I Love
You," which hit number one on the country chart and received
airplay on adult-contemporary radio as well. The follow-ups,
"Love's the Only House," "There You Are," and
"It's My Time," were also popular, the first two reaching
the Top 10.
In 2001 McBride released Greatest Hits,
which went double platinum (selling more than two million copies) and
became her first album to reach number one on the country chart; it
sold well enough to make the pop Top Five as well. Greatest Hits
contains four new tracks, all of which were released as singles:
"Concrete Angel," "Blessed," which hit number one,
and "When God-Fearin' Women Get the Blues" and "Where
Would You Be," both of which reached the Top 10. "This 18-
song CD proves that [McBride] has a solid ear for songs and a high
sense of drama when it comes to delivering them . . . ," Robert
Baird wrote for Country Music (December 2001-January 2002).
"'When God-Fearin' Women Get the Blues,' a full-on, Dobro-tinged
rocker . . . shows off her ability to adopt an aggressive attitude
while letting her phenomenal voice wail. . . . 'Where Would You Be' is
the kind of soaring ballad that McBride always nails. 'Concrete Angel'
is the weakest new track, though it finds McBride once again focusing
on an important social issue-in this case, child abuse. The new song
listeners might find most striking is a gorgeous, mid-tempo tune,
'Blessed.' . . . This generous package does a credible job of summing
up the highlights of McBride's past and hinting at what the future
still holds." Martina (2003), McBride's first release of all-new
music in four years, debuted at number one on the country chart and
number seven on Billboard's Top 200 chart; the lead single, "This
One's For the Girls," became a hit and was nominated for a Grammy
Award. Reviewers, however, had reservations about Martina's merits.
"You'll never hear more beautifully sung sap" was Chris
Willman's assessment for Entertainment Weekly (October 17, 2003),
while Ralph Novak, in People (October 13, 2003), wrote, "'She's a
Butterfly' and 'Reluctant Daughter' . . . tend to the pedantic, and
McBride's penchant for histrionics doesn't make them any more subtle.
'God's Will,' about an impaired boy, is especially on the preachy
side. . . . McBride . . . can be restrained and intelligently
evocative when she applies herself. Mostly, though, McBride seems to
choose and perform material with the prospective video in
mind."
In a review of one of her concerts, Jon
Pareles wrote for the New York Times (December 7, 1999), "Ms.
McBride is part of a generation of nominal country singers whose
audiences are in the suburbs, and whose strongest musical roots are in
1970's soft rock. Most of her music looks toward the steady-strummed
California folk-rock of Sheryl Crow and Tom Petty, with touches of
John Mellencamp. She uses her clear voice the way Ms. Crow does,
easing down to a breathy, conversational tone before working up to
choruses that peal with confidence. Ms. Mc- Bride has reserves of lung
power; every few songs she would seize a note and hold it until the
audience cheered."
McBride won a Country Music Association
(CMA) award for video of the year for "Independence Day" in
1994. She was named female vocalist of the year by that organization
in 1999, 2002, and 2003. She also received awards as female vocalist
of the year from the Academy of Country Music (ACM) in 2002 and 2003.
She was honored with the American Music Award for favorite female
country artist in 2002 and 2003, the Billboard Music Award for country
female artist of the year in 2002, and Country Music Today (CMT)
Flameworthy Awards for the "Concrete Angel" and
"Blessed" videos. She ranked 25th on CMT's list of the
greatest women of country music, and "Independence Day" was
ranked ninth on CMT's list of "100 Greatest Songs of Country
Music." In September 2003 the Recording Academy (the organization
that bestows Grammy Awards) gave McBride its highest honor, the Heroes
Award, for her work with various organizations, among them those that
strive to end domestic violence. That same month she was also honored
with a "Mothers and Shakers" award from Redbook, for her
inspirational songs as well as her charitable activities. McBride has
served as a national spokesperson for the National Network to End
Domestic Violence and Domestic Violence Intervention Services; she has
spoken with female students at junior-high schools about ways to avoid
potentially violent relationships and has established a building fund
for Safe Haven Family Shelter in Nashville, to help the shelter expand
its facilities. Since 1994 McBride has hosted a charity auction, with
proceeds donated to the YWCA; she has also donated items for auctions
benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Discovery
Fund for Eye Research and has partnered with ChildHelp USA to raise
awareness of child abuse.
McBride is a member of the Grand Ole
Opry and the board of directors of the Country Music Retirement
Center. She and her husband, John McBride, have two daughters: Delaney
Katherine, born in December 1994, and Emma Justine, born in March
1998. The family lives in Brentwood, Tennessee, a Nashville suburb. In
her leisure time Mc- Bride enjoys watching movies, reading, cooking,
bowling, and swimming. -K.E.D.
SUGGESTED READING: Billboard p45 Sep.
27, 2003, with photo Country Music p22+ Aug./Sep. 2003, with photos
People p49 Jan. 12, 1998, with photos
 |
