STLtoday.com - Printer friendly - McBride hopes to win one for the girls at country awards [Print] [Close] McBride hopes to win one for the girls at country awards By DANIEL DURCHHOLZ Published: Wednesday, Mar. 31 2004 When the nominations for this year's Academy of Country Music Awards were announced earlier this month, people started to wonder: Where did all the women go? True, Martina McBride did receive four nominations, including nods for album of the year for her most recent release, "Martina," and humanitarian of the year for her work with groups fighting domestic and child abuse. But save for her, the nongender-specific categories were almost completely dominated by male artists. McBride, calling from a cell phone as her tour bus pulled into Oklahoma City, says she's surprised there weren't more women nominated. But she's not ready to call it a conspiracy or anything like that. "It seems odd to me, but then again, if you look at country radio last year and the way things have gone, it's been pretty male-dominated," she says. "Also, I remember five or six years ago, people were saying it was just the opposite: Guys couldn't get played on the radio, it was all females. And besides, some of our biggest female artists - Trisha Yearwood, Faith (Hill), Lee Ann Womack - didn't record last year. It's just cyclical, I think. When they all come out with new records next year, it'll be a different story." Meanwhile, business continues to boom for McBride. The platinum "Martina" is still in country's Top 10 and has spawned the hit "In My Daughter's Eyes" on country radio, whereas the lively "This One's for the Girls" has crossed over to the adult contemporary chart. Crossing over has become increasingly easy for country artists in recent years, with Shania Twain and Faith Hill leading the way. But McBride doesn't consider hitting the pop charts a priority. "I've never really specifically gone after that," she says. "I love being a country artist. I never feel like there's something out there that I'm not experiencing or that I want. I don't make the most traditional country music, let's face it. I never have. But I'm happy making the music that I make. "The record company said they wanted to try to get "This One's for the Girls" on adult contemporary, and I said, 'Whatever.' When things like that happen, they tend to happen organically. We've had some songs cross over, but never anything that's gone to real, true pop radio. They're not playing me alongside Beyonce, which is fine with me." McBride did take a step toward the rock dreams of her childhood, though, when she shared the stage on CMT's "Crossroads" program with one of her idols, Pat Benatar. "It was amazing," she says. "I grew up listening to her music. I'd come home from school every afternoon and put on her records and sing along and try and hit the high notes," McBride says. "It's one thing to imagine meeting someone like that. But never in a million years when I was standing in my bedroom in Kansas did I ever imagine that I'd be onstage with her and that she'd be singing one of my songs. That's just ... you just can't even imagine that." Another surprise for McBride is that she's become known as a singer of "message" songs: "Independence Day" is about a wife finally fighting back against her abusive husband, burning the house down with him, and possibly her, in it; in "Broken Wing," she simply finds the strength to leave; and "Concrete Angel" decries the horrors of child abuse. "I really did not set out to be the person who sings the issue songs, you know?" she says. "And I still don't look for those kinds of songs specifically. But when I heard 'Independence Day' and 'Broken Wing' and 'Concrete Angel,' it was the kind of thing I couldn't walk away from. A big part of what I think music is supposed to do is to elicit a reaction in people. I just felt like these are songs that would touch a lot of people, and they're songs about things that hadn't been sung about on the radio before. There's a whole group of people that this music is going to touch and hopefully help. It was just an instinct that told me to sing them. I never knew that it would end up being what it has." McBride's current tour with Alan Jackson - who, incidentally, garnered eight ACM nominations - finds two of the hottest acts in country performing on one stage. McBride opens the show but has been playing pretty much a full headline set of about 70 minutes. "It's great to be out here with Alan," she says. "I believe the fans get a lot for their hard-earned money. We obviously have two very different styles of performing, two completely different shows. Lots of hits. It's a great tour. It's really fun." Martina McBride With Alan Jackson When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Savvis Center, 1401 Clark Avenue How much: $37.50-$59.50 More info: 314-421-4400, 618-222-2900 or www.ticketmaster.com _____________________________________________________________________ Ready for some new job perks? Post your resume on St. Louis at Work and be matched with the most local jobs. Learn more here. http://splash.stltoday.com/stlouisatworkgetstarted/ _____________________________________________________________________ If you enjoy getting email about an interesting story, you might like the 3 O'Clock Stir from STLtoday.com. Sign up and you'll receive an email with 5 unique stories of the day, every Monday-Friday, at no charge. Sign up at http://newsletters.stltoday.com _____________________________________________________________________