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Singer, songwriter

Trisha Yearwood is universally admired for her soulful, thoughtful, and playful country music—and for her intelligence and keen business acumen. Though she has been enthusiastically aided and encouraged by producers and other country singers, including Garth Brooks and Emmylou Harris, Yearwood herself is clearly the ultimate generator of her own success; the story of her career is one of an artist who carefully planned for the future, training herself both as a singer and a businesswoman.

As John Leland noted in Newsweek, "Yearwood stands on country roots but looks beyond them as well," a characterization consistent with what has been perceived as Yearwood's special contributions to the genre—her commitment to self-reliance and breaking barriers for women in the field. He quoted the singer as stating, "My lyrics are geared to the independent woman. I made a record that was me." Leland concluded of the singer's brand of feminism, "[Yearwood] has succeeded as a contemporary woman, without bowing to domestic country stereotypes."

Trisha Yearwood was born in Monticello, Georgia, where she was voted outstanding senior girl of the Piedmont Academy class of 1982. The town loves her, as their many signs reading "Welcome to Monticello—Home of Trisha Yearwood" attest, and she loves her hometown. "I'm getting excited," she told People, as she and the journalists drove into Monticello. "Look over there, don't you love that church?"

Yearwood grew up listening to Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, and pop singer Linda Rondstadt and appeared in church musicals and talent shows while she earned straight A's. Though she did not sing professionally until after college, her parents were supportive of her aspirations early on. She told Michael Bane of Country Music that despite her parents' ignorance of the field of country music and the "astronomical" odds against making it, "They just believed it, and they said if that was what I wanted, to go for it. They always taught us that whatever we wanted, we should go for. They're probably the biggest reason I'm here, because they always encouraged that."

Believed in Herself

Trisha Yearwood gave her parents plenty of cause to believe in her. When Bane asked her if she'd had an alternate career plan, she answered, "I never planned not to do this.... You really have to believe in yourself, and I really felt like I could do it." Aided by the "banker's genes" she inherited from her father, Yearwood supplemented her talent and desire with a no-nonsense understanding of her responsibility for her career.

Yearwood began that career by singing on the demo recordings of aspiring songwriters. She described the experience to Country Music's Bane as "exercise for the voice," perfect training. "It's a great learning ground. I learned what kinds of songs I wanted to do, and I met a lot of songwriters.... You get used to being quick. You get used to going in, doing your part, creating a harmony you can snap on real quick." And, in fact, on Trisha Yearwood, her debut album, "several of the vocals we used were the ones we first laid down!"

By the time she sang harmony for Garth Brooks, who would soon become a superstar, she had already formulated the philosophy that virtually guaranteed her success. "I didn't expect to walk into Nashville and be 'discovered' on some street corner somewhere. I felt like music was a business like anything else, and there could be a plan," she told Bane.

Hooked Up With Garth Brooks

But her friendship and work with Brooks was indeed helpful. In 1989, Kate Meyers of Entertainment Weekly reported, Yearwood "recorded a duet with an unknown crooner named Garth Brooks in the attic studio of songwriter Kent Blazy's house. The harmony was instant, and Brooks promised that if he ever made it big, he'd take her with him. Two years later, Yearwood's phone rang, and it was the world's hottest hat act on the line, inviting her to open his tour." Despite this good fortune, Yearwood continued to make carefully calculated career choices. For instance, though some in Nashville suggested that Yearwood had committed "careericide" when she severed her ties with the management firm of Doyle-Lewis, which was managing Brooks, Yearwood knew she needed someone who could focus more fully on her career. She contracted with Ken Kragen, legendary manager of Kenny Rogers, a move that considerably boosted her profile in the industry. In 1991 she signed a recording contract with MCA Records and released her self-titled debut album had; buoyed by the Number One single "She's in Love With the Boy" and the singer's work on the road with Brooks, Trisha Yearwood was an unqualified success.

With her second album, Hearts in Armor, both Yearwood and her producers began to focus on her image. She was—to the eye at least—actively made over, no longer "the countrified ingenue, curly-haired and denim shirted," as depicted by Kate Meyers in Entertainment Weekly, but now a "Cinderella-with-a-business-plan," who performs "in a long black velvet dress, her straight hair positioned perfectly, her skin flawless."

But fans did not need to fear that Yearwood's physical metamorphosis—she also overhauled her diet, lost weight, and trimmed inches—had changed the woman. To the contrary, it was only reasonable that this woman who majored in music business at Belmont College and prepared for her career with an internship at MTM Records would be similarly attentive to her image. In fact, Yearwood has likened her position to that of "a business executive"; when she agreed to be the spokesperson for Revlon's Wild Heart cologne, she told Entertainment Weekly's Meyers, she did so in order "to expand my audience to the millions of women who buy Revlon and watch TV but still don't know what country music's about." And firmly grasping her unique marketing potential, she told Revlon, "If you're looking for a model, you've already got Cindy Crawford. But if you're looking for a real person, I could be that person."

For his part, Rolling Stone's David McGee is untroubled by Yearwood's evolving image. "The country girl is now a dazzling beauty," he wrote, but he was also "happy to report [that] this make-over in pursuit of mass appeal applies only to Trisha Yearwood's appearance; not only has her music retained its edge, but it has grown." Hearts in Armor, McGee asserted, "goes deeper into the acoustic-based country and folk styles" than her debut album had. "On a disc that offers much to admire—Garth Fundis's sparkling production, sensitive instrumental support, first-rate songs," he added, "Yearwood's singing is the most compelling element. She has added both sass and depth to her seductive tone. Hearts is hard country, starkly rendered and personal to an often startling degree."

Kudos for Hearts in Armor

More praise for Hearts in Armor came from Newsweek's Leland, who called Yearwood "hearty and lustrous, muscular in her phrasing" and opined, "She gives the most powerful performance Nashville has seen from a woman in years." In Entertainment Weekly, Alanna Nash classified Yearwood as one of those country "soul singers .. . performers who strip the protective hide off the heart to expose the devastation of loss, the humiliation of romantic deception, the anguish of being unable to love, and the yearning for spiritual fulfillment."

Critics have often been quick to laud individual Yearwood songs, not only "She's in Love With the Boy," but also, particularly, her achievements on Hearts in Armor. Country Music contributor Rich Kienzle cited "the grittiness of... 'Wrong Side of Memphis," accentuated by a smoky, foreboding Yearwood vocal,... [the] smoldering 'You Say You Will,'... [the] darker, if more sensitive, exploration [of] 'Walkaway Joe,' .. . [and] her zesty versions of 'Oh Lonesome You' and the late Keith Whitley's gospel tune 'You Don't Have to Move That Mountain,' [which reveals] her throaty strength on uptempo tunes." Rolling Stone's Mark Coleman especially liked the duets on Hearts, noting how Yearwood "stands up to each" of her big-name partners. "She emotes note for note with Garth Brooks on 'Nearest Distant Shore,'" he testified, "croons longingly beside Don Henley on 'Walkaway Joe,' and soars with Emmylou Harris on 'Woman Walk the Line.'"

1993 found Yearwood hotter than ever. Both of her albums had sold more than one million units; a home video was planned for release by MCA to overseas markets; she had appeared in director Peter Bogdanovich's film The Thing Called Love; and a one-hour special for Disney to coincide with the release of her third album was in the works. Among her other accomplishments was a duet with Dolly Parton on the letter's Slow Dancing with the Moon. And a book, Get Hot or Go Home: Making It in Nashville, "a case study of her lightning rise," according to Entertainment Weekly's Meyers, was planned for publication in the fall of 1993.

Despite this breakneck pace, it is hardly a surprise that Yearwood has yet to become jaded; she told Country Musicò Bane, "You get up every single morning and do something new. You get to meet people you've dreamed of meeting your entire life, and you even get to sing with some of them.... You get to be Cinderella every day." Few would doubt the continued success of a woman who announced to Newsweek, "I don't want to be trying to make a hit record in 20 years. I want to have made good investments."

—Diane Moroff