Pam Tillis sings hopeful songs for divorced women

BY JIM PATTERSON     Associated Press Writer
Country singer Pam Tillis poses in New York, in this March 12, 1999, file photo. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The new album by country singer Pam Tillis is an earthy delight in an era when Nashville seems more enamored with the bellybuttons of its female singers than what they have to say. On "Thunder & Roses," 43-year-old Tillis speaks to the women of her generation, encouraging them to continue the quest for true love despite the specter of divorce and complications of children. It's a thoughtful and sometimes funny album that leaps from musical style to style. "Baby boomers rule!" she said with a laugh. "I make music for my friends, and they include a pretty wide age group. There's a lot of adults in there. I don't want to make it exclusive but it's more of an adult slant on the record, definitely."
The 12-song set has several songs about looking for love the second - or third - time around. It's territory she knows. Tillis has been twice divorced (the second time from songwriter Bob DiPiero in 1998 and has a grown son.
"Jagged hearts can mend/Scars can heal and then/It's so amazing when jagged hearts fit together," sings Tillis as she sets the tone with "Jagged Hearts," the opening number by Chris Lindsey and Stephanie Bentley. The song approaches "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" for melodramatic production.
Elsewhere on the CD, she offers "Off White," an encouraging song about getting remarried that is worthy of Tammy Wynette. The sassy "Be a Man" would be right at home on an Aretha Franklin album.
On the Top 10 hit "Please," Tillis takes on the persona of a nervous mother getting ready for a date: "Am I nervous?/Am I scared?/Is it worth it?/Should I even care?/What a time to have these second thoughts/Man I like this guy/I really like him a lot," she sings, reciting other lines like "I hate doing my hair."
Tillis, who has co-written hits for herself ("Spilled Perfume," "Cleopatra, Queen of Denial") and had songs recorded by Chaka Kahn and Martina McBride, co-wrote only one song ("Off White") on the
new album. She said productivity isn't the problem; she's written lots of new songs.
"I'm hardest on my own stuff," Tillis said. "I'm just not in a place I want to be as a songwriter right now. But that doesn't mean I want to stop singing."
While the lack of Tillis-written songs may disappoint some fans, "Thunder & Roses" benefits from her careful attention to song selection, resulting in a thematically consistent and musically diverse collection.
She's always had broad musical tastes. Her first album in 1983 was pop-rock, despite growing up in Nashville as the daughter of country star Mel Tillis.
"I grew up in Nashville, so I feel like a home girl," Tillis said. "I'll always be Mel's little girl around here, and I don't mean that in a bad way. They watched me grow up."
As a nod to her family legacy, "Thunder & Roses" closes with a sentimental duet with her dad, "Waiting on the Wind."
The elder Tillis had scores of hits, wrote the standard "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," and stuttered his way through decades of TV shows and movies.
Tillis and her four younger siblings didn't see their father much because he was constantly touring, but she performed with him and hung around the Grand Ole Opry radio show.
After her 1983 pop album didn't get much notice, Tillis sang backup in her father's show, and spent time honing her songwriting chops. It took six years to launch her own successful career with such hits as "Maybe It Was Memphis."
She won the Country Music Association's best female vocalist award in 1994. Her 1998 album, "Every Time," was a sales and radio disappointment, but with the emergence of "Please" as a hit, Tillis is optimistic.
"Nobody is saying, "Hey, it's time for you to try something else,'" she said. "I'm not feeling that at all. That would be very depressing."
"I feel like people are going, 'We've missed you.' That's the overwhelming sense that I'm getting. And that feels really good."

HERALD-Standard, MARCH, 2001


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