From the age of 13, Tanya Tucker has claimed a spot in the country music world. By the age of 15, she had received a Grammy nomination, released a greatest hits package and was one of the first country artists to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. With hits including “Delta Dawn,” “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane” and “What’s Your Mama’s Name,” Tucker continues to be a force on the music scene.
In a news release, Tucker says that “one day I just started singing.” Growing up in Arkansas, she sang what she heard on the sole radio station in town, and by 8 years old, she could sing the words with country legends like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb and Hawkshaw Hawkins.
Tanya Tucker is set to perform at the Grand Opera House on Friday night.
Her hard work and love of music paid off when she recorded her first hit, “Delta Dawn,” when she was only 13. It quickly proved to be the first of many hits and in 1991, she was named the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year. The following year she was Country Music Television’s Female Video Artist of the Year.
Tucker has released more than 20 albums, with her last one being “My Turn” in 2009, which includes classic country hits such as “Wine Me Up,” “Lovesick Blues,” “You Don’t Know Me” and “Oh Lonesome Me.”
Tucker, who credits her father, Beau, a construction worker, and her mother, Juanita, for encouraging her fledgling musical talents, states on her website that she was and remains determined “to make records that were in keeping with the sophisticated country rock.” Whatever her secret is, it has led to 29 Top 10 singles, and a firm place in the hearts of her fans.
Even the country purists who booed Tucker on the Grand Ole Opry for performing raucous rock ’n’ roll have to admit that, whatever else she may be, Tucker is a star. Her personality shines through in her 1997 autobiography, “Nickel Dreams: My Life,” and even more so through her own reality show, “Tuckerville,” which aired on The Learning Channel in 2005.
Tucker released another book in 2005, “100 Ways to Beat the Blues on Fireside,” which, according to the news release, “includes tips on pulling yourself out of the dumps from Tanya’s friends, including Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee, Roseanne, Burt Reynolds and Wynonna.”
Read more: http://www.macon.com/2011/03/18/1489980 ... z1H99DkWk2