I have decided to write this week's article on Tanya Tucker. I have always liked her music and have admired her gutsy ways.

Other Facts:

• Started singing at the age of 6
• Recorded her first hit, "Delta Dawn" at the age of 13
• One of the first songs she was given to record after signing with Columbia Records in 1972 was "The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA," which Tanya was dead set against recording, so it was given to Donna Fargo, and the rest as they say is country music history.
• in 1976, at the age of 15, she already had enough material out to release a greatest hits album. She had a Grammy nomination, and was the among the first country artists to appear on the cover of The Rolling Stone magazine
• Was the youngest woman in pop and country music to have a box set of her songs released.
• First country artist to be inducted into Hard Rock Cafe's "Walk of Fame"

Musical Influences:

• Loretta Lynn
• Elvis Presley
• Jimmie Rogers
• Frank Sinatra
• Connie Smith
• Hank Williams Sr.

"Tanya was trying to sing as a child," her father, Beau Tucker, said. "I never even thought about her singing till one day she walked up and said, 'Daddy, you wanta hear me sing a song?' I said, 'Sweetheart you couldn't sing your way out of a paper sack.' She backed up about ten foot and showed me she could sing. She let me have it." -- from Rolling Stone cover story on Tanya Tucker, 9/26/74

It is interesting that I found that particular story about Tanya Tucker. In her thirty plus year music career Tanya has backed up and opened her mouth and let people know what she can do many times. She is a beautiful, tough, talented singer, devoted to her parents, has sung what she wanted to sing, and in a time when it was frowned upon, she announced to Nashville that she was to be a single Mom.

Hit Songs:

• Delta Dawn
• What's Your Mama's Name
• Blood Red And Goin' Down
• Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)
• I Wont Take Less Then Your Love
• If It Don't Come Easy
• Strong Enough To Bend
• I'll Come Back As Another Woman

Sound clips courtesy of Barnes & Noble