Updates

Las Vegas, NV - by: Cheryl Harvey Hill - Assoc. Producer/Journalist

Never before have I seen Wranglers, a t-shirt and a Stetson look so elegant. Terri Clark is a class act and seemed right at home onstage at the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada. But then, it is obvious that she would be right at home on any stage. Ms. Clark has been quoted as saying, "The whole thing about country music is simplicity, 'Less is more.' You just have to be honest." Within seconds of meeting her for the first time, it is obvious that Terri Clark lives by these words. She is as refreshing as a breath of spring air after a rain. Her music, like her attitude, is as uncomplicated as her wardrobe. As we line up for a brief meet and greet before her show, she playfully trades quips and one-liners with some of her management staff. We had been told that she was "feeling a bit under the weather", but she shows no signs of it. She is upbeat and friendly and it is easy to see why her fans, and the media, use adjectives like candid, humorous, casual and down-to-earth to describe her. Terri Clark's debut album went platinum in Canada and the United States and her first single Better Things To Do became a No.1 country hit. She was crowned Star of Tomorrow at the fan-voted TNN/Music City News Awards and the Country Music Association nominated her for its prestigious Horizon Award. Billboard magazine named her the Top New Female Country Artist of 1995. The Canadian Country Music Association honored her with three awards -- Album of the Year, Song of the Year and its Vista Award for Rising Star of 1996 and Terri Clark will be the first to tell you that this is just the beginning. She has no intentions of slowing down - she is just getting started. Her revival of the country-rock classic Poor, Poor Pitiful Me is the personification of the feisty charm that has become her trademark and is the perfect platform for her robust energy. During this song she dances back and forth across the stage several times and then finally bolts out into the audience and works her way to the back of the room - sharing high-fives, hugs, and encouraging everyone to sing along. Terri Clark professes to "love real country music" and it is apparent that she also loves the fans. It is clearly a mutual admiration. In late 1995, Better Things to Do soared to number one on the charts. Three more self-penned hits followed; When Boy Meets Girl, If I Were You and Suddenly Single. She went on the road as the opening act for superstar George Strait and attracted a lot of positive attention with her playful, energetic, boot-scootin' stage antics. She wrote or cowrote all but three of the tunes on her second album, Just the Same and her longtime concert crowd pleaser Poor, Poor Pitiful Me was a huge success as the advance single. Despite all the acclaim and awards, she has retained her down-to-earth attitude. "I just want to keep doing this and doing this, and getting better over time. This isn't about being a 'phenomenon.' It's about having longevity, I look at people like Reba and Dolly and George Strait and think, `That's what I want, a career,'" says Terri Clark. "I am completely walking on air. This is just like Cinderella going to the ball. Except I don't wear a dress." In a simple t-shirt, wranglers, cowboy hat and boots - Terri Clark IS the most beautiful of Cinderella's. She doesn't need an elegant dress. Her beauty and talent eminates from deep within her soul and radiates outward with a breathtaking aura as pure as her voice. Natural beauty, charisma and talent. Terri Clark's success isn't a fairy tale - and it will endure long beyond the stroke of midnight.

Terri Clark took home the most honored award in September at the CCMA's. The Fan's Choice Award (voted on ONLY by the fan's) and Video of the Year for "No Fear". I'll be posting pictures of the awards soon, so check them out!

I'd also like to say that Terri's getting involved in a lot of the "to do's" since the September attack. She's helping out with many things. Check out her offical web site for all the news on that.

Terri just got some time off. Also just releasing "Empty" in Canada. Many believe that Terri was making the video! Here's hoping! And even more so, that people start requesting "Empty" in the States. After all, she doesn't have to release it for us to be able to request it! So go on..get to callin' your radio stations!

The following article appeared in Country weekly on 11-28-2000. Story By: Wendy Newcomer

TERRI CLARK
Sheds her skin for a New Album

At the moment, Terri is having second thoughts. As she perches precariously on the upper window ledge of a Nashville warehouse - a pose chosen to illustrate the title of her new album, FEARLESS - she searches for another title that might have placed her in a less nerve rattling situation. "Maybe I should have called the album Money! " says Terri, laughing.
In the course of the photo shoot, Terri also "fearlessly" posed with a boa constrictor and an albino rat snake. "I was very freaked out at first," she admits, "because I don't like spiders and snakes, to coin a Jim Stafford song."
"I started out with one finger just touching the snake. When they put him around my neck, that was pretty freaky. I'm glad my mother wasn't at that shoot, she would have had a total fit."
In the last year, Terri has overcome more than just an aversion to snakes. "Learning to like yourself is the biggest fear you have to conquer," says the introspective singer. "Once you feel at peace with yourself, you can become a lot more fearless. Because you know that the worst thing that can happen to you isn't really all that bad. We're here to live - and to live fearlessly."
Deep talk from the performer who's known for rallying crowds with rowdy hits like "Better Things To Do," "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" and "Easy On The eyes," But this is a new Terri Clark.
"I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anybody anymore," she says. "I don't have to get in everybody's face and prove how tough I am, how loud I can sing and how long I can hold a note. If it comes naturally, it's so much easier to listen to."
But there's a risk in Terri's new approach, and in her decision to take the time to grow. It's been two years since she released a new album - an eternity in the music industry. "When I was making this album, I was at home a lot," she recalls, "and not in the public eye. There was nothing new of mine on the radio, and I experienced a lot of things.
"One day I'd have anxiety that everyone was forgetting about me. But most of the time I felt okay about it, which surprised me. I discovered that this is not all there is to life. My career and music are not 100 percent of who I am.
"I felt like I was at a turning point in my career," she continues. "I had no choice but to make the album I made. I told myself, "You've gotta have no fear."
That piece of advice set the tone for the record. "There's a song on the album called 'No Fear,' " Terri explains," and the whole theme of the album centers around that. There are lots of songs about following year heart, living in the moment, not getting caught up in superficial things, It's amazing - out of me growing as a person, I ended up growing as an artist." Terri recorded the vocal tracks for Fearless at her home studio, giving her much more comfort and convenience that a usual recording studio. "There was a bedroom where we recorded vocals, and then a main room where we had all the studio equipment," she says.
"There were no time constraints or budgets to worry about. If I wasn't in good voice, I could wait until 10 that night if I wanted to or go in at one in the morning and sing. People have told me they can hear that I'm a little more at ease and comfortable."
And a little more prolific, too. Terri had a hand in writing eight songs on the album, including two with Mary Chapin Carpenter. "We first met at the CMAs two years ago," recalls Terri. "I always thought she was a great writer, but I never really knew her as a person.
"We started to talk and I asked, "Would you ever consider writing with me?' she said, 'I would love to, but I don't really co-write much, that sort of thing intimidates me.' "I was thinking, 'Okay, if somebody's going to be intimidated here, it's not going to be you,' " Terri recalls with a laugh, "But she came over to my house, and we were instantly comfortable with each other."
Except for the album's rollicking first single, "A Little Gasoline," Fearless showcases Terri's softer side. Her favorites include the title track and the moving ballad "Empty."
"'Empty' sounds negative when you first hear that word, but it's a positive love song about feeling so much for somebody that you just can't hold it in any longer," explains Terri. "Every fiber of your being is going out to this person. Your soul is reaching out to theirs."
Terri was determined to bare her own soul with her new music. "I really wanted an album that would let people in on who I am," she says.
"Everybody has a rowdy, partying side, but that can become a bit of a facade. You don't want people to see who you really are, because you're afraid that they might not like you.
"But when you finally start to like yourself, you don't care who sees who you really are," she adds. "I had a lot I wanted to say on this album, because I really hadn't done that before. I'm not putting down the records I've done in the past, because they've been great to me. But I was ready to grow and do something different."
Something different- like putting a boa constrictor around her neck. "That," says Terri with a grin, "is being fearless!"

Behind The Song

The first time Terri Clark, Tom Shapiro and Chris Waters sat down together to write a song, they hit a home run. "Tom had written down something about 'better things,'" says Terri. "And I said, 'What about better things to do?' So we started talking about the idea, how it could really be a tongue-in-cheek. The 'stereo wires' line was the one we loved the most." After writing down a verse and a chorus, they recorded what they composed and then took a lunch break. Upon returning, Tom flipped on the tape recorder to review what they had done. Apparently Tom liked what he heard. Suddenly, he faced Terri and Chris, and in his best imitation of the famous cartoon character, Inspector Gadget, Tom declared, "Just as I suspected!" Terri still laughs at that comical moment. But they still had one hitch: coming up with the Donahue line, "Donahue was going off the air that year," explains Terri "and we were thinking maybe we should say, 'I'd like to talk to you, but Oprah's on at two!' It was definitely a dilemma for a while with all the talk show hosts names, so we just went with Donahue. Now its really outdated, of course! These days it would probably be someone like Ricki Lake or Jerry Springer. Jerry wasn't around back then doing what he's doing, so we'd probably put him right in there now." The writers weren't the only ones who knew they had a winner. Radio programmers quickly picked up on the song's biting, yet humorous, scenario. "Two weeks after we wrote it," recalls Terri, "Mercury Records had a party in Phoenix for about 50 radio people. I was in a hotel room with my acoustic guitar and played this brand new song I'd just written. They didn't know who I was because I just been signed to the label and didn't even have a record out, but they went crazy over the song. That was a good indicator to everybody that we had something. And then, it all came to life in the studio." The indications proved correct. The lively song bolted all the way up to No. 3 on the charts in 1995, launching Terri's career. "I still love that song," says Terri. "It's really fun, and I've gotten so much mail about it. It helps people move on from being at a stuck point in life - which is good!"
~Written by: Marianne Horner Printed in Country Weekly Magazine's April 4th 2000

Terri Clark Terri Clark became something of a country music sensation in 1995 with the release of her debut platinum album, entitled Terri Clark. The first single, "Better Things to Do" was a number-one hit on the country charts. In the summer of 1996, she was voted Star of Tomorrow by the TNN (The Nashville Network)/Music City News Awards, a fan- voted honor. She was also nominated by the Country Music Association for its prestigious Horizon Award. Billboard magazine recognized her achievement by awarding her Top New Female Country Artists of 1995. In her native Canada, the awards were even higher with the Canadian Country Music Association awarding her Album of the Year, Song of the Year and the Vista Rising Star Award for 1996. Clark was born in Montréal, Québec on August 5, 1968 to Les Samson and Linda Clark. As a child, the family moved from Montréal to the heartland of Canada, the prairie province of Alberta. She was educated in the public schools of Medicine, Alberta and was exposed from a very early age to country music. Her grandparents had been country music performers and both her parents were musical. Clark herself began playing guitar at the age of nine. Throughout her childhood she was thrilled by country music and became a huge fan of The Judds, Reba McEntire and other big country stars. All her life, she wanted to be a country music performer, she told Victoria Forrest of American Country magazine. "When I was growing up, that is all I talked about. I slept, ate and breathed country music. I always loved the sounds from Nashville and couldn't have imagined doing anything else with my life." Succumbing to her daughter's drive, in 1987, her mother brought her to Nashville, country music's Mecca, where the 18- year old hoped to make a career. The chances of it making it in Nashville, of course, were extremely slim. Still, Clark and her mother had faith that Terri had what it would take to make it. Incredibly, soon after their arrival, Terri got a job performing at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge after taking the stage one day while the regular performer was on break. She told the story for her record company's promotional department: "I was fresh from the prairie. We went into Tootsie's and there was a guy playing for tips. I boldly went up and asked him if I could go on during his break; and I started singing. I did these impersonations of John Conlee and John Anderson and George Jones and people started filtering in from the street. By the time I got ready to leave, the place was full. They hired me." After securing a job and a place to live, Clark was left on her own by her mother who had to return to Alberta. She took part-time jobs and continued singing and writing music. She worked for a while in a boot store and waited tables at all sorts of restaurants, including a Chinese restaurant where one of her jobs was to rub down the steamed rice to keep it from getting too sticky. In addition to singing at Tootsie's, she sang at Gilley's and at the Wax Museum. While critics and fans often consider that she was something of an overnight sensation -- since her very first single was a hit -- the truth is she worked long and hard at her craft and put in her time knocking on doors trying to get noticed. She spent eight years living on the edge of the Nashville country music scene before catching the attention of Luke Lewis, president of Mercury Records, which signed her in 1994. Clark described the ordeal of trying to get "discovered" for an interview in Country Song Roundup in 1996. She said that all her running around for all those years in Nashville gave her a good sense of what is and what isn't a hit. She also said that she often wondered if she shouldn't just abandon her dreams and try to put together a life for herself beyond country music. "I wondered if I was ever going to have a normal life. 'Am I just going to keep chasing after my dream, or am I going to settle down, buy a house and raise a family like a normal person?'" Her perseverance, however, won out and she was granted a performance before Lewis. Having been given the opportunity to perform before the president of one the largest labels in the country, Clark selected a few of her favorite compositions, performing "Was There a Girl on Your Boys' Night Out?" and "The Inside Story" among others. Terri Clark the album was completed in 1995 and contains 12 cuts, all but one of which were written by Clark, in collaboration. These include: "If I Were You" (first number-one hit), "Catch-22," "Is Fort Worth Worth It?" "When Boy Meets Girl," (second number one) Tyin' A Heart to a Tumbleweed," "When We Had it Bad," "Better Things to Do,"(third number one) "Suddenly Single," "Flowers After the Fact," "The Inside Story," "Was There a Girl on Your Boys' Night Out?" and "Something You Should've Said." Almost immediately after its release, the praise started piling up. In 1996, she went on the road, opening up for country music superstar George Strait and drawing quite a bit of attention herself. In the fall of 1996, Clark released her second album, which has received largely positive reviews. The album contains eleven songs, eight of which Clark wrote or co-wrote. These include: "Emotional Girl," "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me," "Just the Same," "Something in the Water," "Neon Flame," "Any Woman," "Twang Thang," "You do or You Don't," "Keeper of the Flame," "Not What I Wanted to Hear," and "Hold your Horses." Dating back to her pre-record deal years, the Warren Zevon classic "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me" has been something of a standard for Clark, and, as such, it was the first single from her sophomore effort. It piqued at number five on the Billboard charts. Overall, Terri Clark has shown Nashville and country fans that she intends to stick around.

Terri Clark In Las Vegas Never before have I seen Wranglers and a t-shirt look so elegant. Terri Clark is a class act and seemed right at home onstage at the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada. But then, it is obvious that she would be right at home on any stage. Ms. Clark has been quoted as saying, "The whole thing about country music is simplicity, 'Less is More.' You just have to be honest." With in seconds of meeting her for the first time, it is obvious that Terri Clark lives by these words. She is as refreshing as a breath of spring air after a rain. Her music, like her attitude, is as uncomplicated as her wardrobe. As we line up for a breif meet and great before her show, she playfully trades quips and one liners with some of her management staff. We had been told taht she was "Feeling a bit under the weather". But she shows no signs of it. She is upbeat and friendly and it is easy to see why her fans, and the media, use adjectives like candid, humorous, casual and down-to-earth to describe her. Clark's debut album went platinum in Canada and the United States and her first single "Better Things to do" became a No.1 country hit. She was crowned star of tomorrow at the fan-voted TNN/Music City News Awards and the CMA nominated her for its prestigious Horizon Award. Billboard magazine named her the Top New Female Country Artist of 1995. The CCMA honored her with three awards -- Album of the YEar, Song of the Year and its Visto Award for Rising Star of 1996 and Terri Clark will be the first to tell you that this is just the beginning. She has no intentions of slowing down, she is just getting started. Her revival of the country-rock classic "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" is the personificaton of the feisty charm that has become her trademark and is the perfect platform for her robust energy. During this song she dances back and forth across teh stage several times and then finally bolts out into the audience and works her way to the back of the room - sharing high fives , hugs, and encouraging everyone to sing along. Terri Clark professes to "love real country music" and it is apparent that she also loves the fans. It is clearly a mutual admiration. In late 1995, "Better Things to do" soared to number on on the charts. Three more self-penned hits followed -- "When Boy Meets Girl", "If I Were You", and "Suddenly Single". She went on the road as the opening act for superstar George Strait adn attracted a lot of positive attention with her playful, energetic, boot-scootin' stage antics. She wrote or co wrote all but three of the tunes on her second album. "Just the Same" and her longtime concert crowd pleaser, "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" was a huge success as the advance single. Despite all the acclaim and awards, she has retained her down-to-earth attitude. "I just want to keep doing this and doing this, and getting better over time. This isn't about being a 'phenomenon.' It's about having longevity. I look at people like Reba and Dolly and George Strait and think, 'That's what I want, a career.'" Says Terri Clark. "I am completely walking on air. This is just like Cinderella going to the ball. Except I don't wear a dress." In a simple t-shirt, wranglers, cowboy hat and boots - Terri Clark IS the most beautiful of Cinderella's. She doesn't need an elegant dress. Her beauty and talent eminates from deep within her sould and radiates outward with a breathtaking aura as pure as her voice. Natural beauty, charim and talent. Terri clark's success isn't a fairy tale and it will endure long beyond the stroke of midnight.