POP MUSIC : Letter From Nashville: And a Woman Shall Lead Them

Three women commanded Nashville’s attention during 1995, and their stories represent the spectrum of conflict, and the glint of optimism currently spreading through the city’s country music industry.

They couldn’t be more different:

* Shania Twain. She’s a Canadian singer whose upbeat, pop-influenced songs provided country music with its biggest commercial breakthrough in 1995. Her “Woman in Me” album sold nearly 2.8 million copies, making it one of the 10 biggest sellers in all of pop last year, according to SoundScan figures.

* Emmylou Harris. This urbane, well-traveled veteran has an intellectual approach to traditional music and she made a creative leap last year by collaborating with rock producer Daniel Lanois on her album “Wrecking Ball.” The album was widely acclaimed, but sales were a modest 100,000-plus.

* Alison Krauss. This young wunderkind from the world of bluegrass dominated the Country Music Assn. Awards last fall and has sold nearly 2 million copies of a best-of compilation--even though the album, “Now That I’ve Found You,” was recorded for independent Rounder Records and received negligible radio airplay.

Twain is the name most often mentioned to combat the perception that country music is quickly descending from the commercial expansion it experienced at the beginning of the ‘90s.

Her 1993 debut had received little notice and dismal reviews. However, in 1994, she married rock producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, known for his work with Def Leppard, Queen and Bryan Adams. Twain collaborated with her husband on the album, which is being billed as the fastest-selling collection by a female artist in country history.

Twain joins Tim McGraw, John Michael Montgomery and Faith Hill as the best-selling stars to emerge since Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill and Brooks & Dunn initiated the country music boom at the start of the decade. But many critics, including some within the Nashville music industry, fret that country’s new chart-toppers lack the artistic depth to sustain lengthy careers.

“I haven’t seen any big stars emerge in recent years,” says Tony Brown, the much-respected president of MCA Records and producer for George Strait, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill and Wynonna. “What makes big stars isn’t just a big hit single. It’s something more intangible, that high Q factor. Vince, Garth and Alan are great performers, as are George Strait and Reba. That’s got to be a part of it.”

Twain, for one, has yet to mount a tour. Her lone high-profile performance took place at October’s Country Music Assn. Awards, where she emerged dancing down the aisles and stopping to bounce in the laps of several male country performers as she sang.

Others argue that the sales success of Twain and McGraw proves that country music remains healthy. Annual sales have remained at about 76 million for the last three years.

The founder of one of Nashville’s leading publicity firms believes that the perception that new stars won’t last may be traceable to the lack of media excitement generated outside of country radio.

Nancy Russell, of Force Inc., suggests Brooks, Gill and Jackson benefited from the explosion of news reports that trumpeted country music’s rise in popularity. Now that sales growth is old news, the newer stars aren’t pictured on national magazine covers or other prominent placements afforded the previous group of top sellers.

“I don’t see what’s going on now as a doom-and-gloom thing,” Russell says. “Everybody goes through cycles. But the interest in country music is still there. The sales are still strong, still much bigger than they were before.”

If there are questions regarding Twain, everyone in Nashville agrees on the merits of Harris and Krauss.

Harris has proven her longevity. With “Wrecking Ball,” the 48-year-old celebrated her 20th year as a solo performer by pointing toward a potential path for the future of country music, one that blends stark, raw atmospherics with country’s traditional lyrical themes.

When released in the fall, the album became the most praised and widely discussed album of the year along Nashville’s industry-centered Music Row, even though the songs didn’t stand a chance to gain airplay within the conservative confines of country radio.

In that way, Harris represented country’s primary dilemma: How can a segment of the industry so reliant on radio airplay find a way to market and sell music that doesn’t fit radio’s sometimes stifling tastes?

As Russell points out, pop music enjoys a variety of formats: contemporary hits, adult contemporary, album-oriented rock, alternative rock, adult alternative, etc.

Country radio, for the most part, follows one format and one kind of chart, whether the station beams from San Francisco or Dallas or the hills of Virginia or the plains of Arkansas.

At one time, however, Harris enjoyed more attention from the country airwaves. From 1975 to 1988, Harris had more than 20 Top 10 hits. But these days, she feels alienated from the mainstream, and not just because it ignores her.

She says she is hearing an abundance of good music these days, but finding it means seeking beyond what radio offers. She mentions Steve Earle, Kieran Kane, Jon Randall, Lucinda Williams, Guy Clark, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Pam Tillis, Trisha Yearwood, Joe Ely, Kevin Welch and Gillian Welch as some of the current artists she’s enjoying.

Even more than Harris, Krauss brings the radio problem into focus. A critically acclaimed singer since the late 1980s, Krauss had never achieved a Top 40 hit until she recorded a duet, “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart,” with the country band Shenandoah, and a solo song, “When You Say Nothing at All,” for a Keith Whitley tribute album.

Her successful year culminated in four CMA Awards.

One would think that such grand success, which included an immediate leap in sales thanks to her newfound exposure, would carry over to radio. But when Rounder Records sent out subsequent singles, including a breathtaking and decidedly mainstream version of an old Foundations hit, “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You,” Krauss went back to being ignored by major-market stations.

The only difference was the lack of major-label promotional support.

Radio has provided other roadblocks. Dwight Yoakam, the Mavericks, the Tractors, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Marty Stuart and Kim Richey--major-label artists who have garnered the most praise and widespread respect--have faced momentum-slowing roadblocks from country radio.

Still, many perceive good signs for 1996, thanks to new albums out or due from Strait, Gill, Earle, Wynonna, Alan Jackson, Mandy Barnett and Bobbie Cryner.

“I’m bullish about 1996,” says Brown. “The good thing about Shania’s success is that she pushed the envelope. Because of her, radio might be ready to play edgier stuff. The music got stale a little bit in 1995, even though we still sold a lot of records. Right now, the women seem to be in charge. It’s time for the males to get out of this rut they’re in. It’s time to get beyond all these copycats.”