Tanya Tucker reconnects with fans with music festival appearance, new CD

Tanya Tucker reconnects with fans at CMA festival

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Country Music Association’s annual festival is supposed to be all about the fans, but Tanya Tucker says the artists get quite a bit out of it, too.

“For the artists it’s just as much fun as it is for the fans because we get to see friends we don’t get to see a lot,” said Tucker, who chatted with fellow country star John Michael Montgomery before signing autographs this week.

Tucker, 50, has been appearing at the festival since the mid 1970s. She signed autographs for about an hour Thursday, the day the festival kicked off.

Her timing couldn’t be better. She’ll release her first CD in about seven years on June 30, and she views the signings as a chance to reconnect with fans.

“For once I’m right on time instead of on Tanya time,” she joked.

While concerts by the likes of Kenny Chesney and Martina McBride are the festival’s top draws, the autograph booths aren’t far behind.

Tucker may be one of the more colorful entertainers at the CMA booths. When one woman asked her whose autograph she would most like to have, Tucker replied: “Kevin Costner — on my country rear end.”

Thousands of fans mill around the booths in the Nashville Convention Center with guitars, album covers and glossy photos. Not all of the artists sit for autographs, but many do, and it’s been a cornerstone of the CMA festival, formerly called “Fan Fair,” since it began in 1972.

Emily Zubiria used a guitar to collect autographs of some of her favorite performers.

“Montgomery Gentry, Craig Morgan, Bucky Covington, the Whites,” Zubiria of Miami said, rattling off the names scrawled across the instrument.

While standing in line to see Chuck Wicks, Arena Cheney of St. Louis and Laura Liden of Chicago said they’ve never had to wait more than an hour.

Asked who’d they’d wait longer for, they looked at one another and replied in unison, “Kenny Chesney.”

“We’d wait all day for him,” Liden laughed.

When Tucker sat down for her hour-long signing session, she had plenty of interesting moments. She signed a fishing bobber and an electric fan. “Both firsts,” she said.

She had yet another first when a pair of young girls in cowboy hats serenaded her with “Delta Dawn,” the hit that made her a child star in 1972.

Tucker applauded. “I enjoyed that. It was very special,” she told them as she gave them a hug and signed their hats with a black marker.

Tucker even gave one woman a gold-colored, flower-shaped ring she was wearing after the woman remarked how pretty it was.

“Everyone has been complimenting me on it, so now they can compliment you,” Tucker told her.

Tucker’s upcoming CD, “My Turn,” finds her interpreting country classics by male singers like Eddy Arnold, George Jones, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.

She said she’s always been drawn to songs written or sung by men.

“I took male songs and made them strong female songs,” she said.

Tucker, whose run of hits lasted well into the 1990s and included 10 No. 1 singles, dedicates the new album to her father and manager, Beau Tucker, who died in 2006.

“He introduced me to country music, period,” she said. “That’s where I learned it.”

On the Net:

Tanya Tucker: tanyatuckerhorses.com/

Country Music Association: www.cmaworld.com/