Pure Country

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Mindy McCready - "Mindy McCready"

You don't just hear Mindy McCready's music - you feel it.
It's passionate. Soulful. Sensuous in every sense of the word.

In other words, it's Mindy. Knowing that her past songs have revealed only bits and pieces of her personality, Mindy wanted this, her fourth album, to be completely her own. She opens her soul in a way she's never done before by choosing songs that hit her in the gut and in the heart, and letting those feelings guide her performance.

"This whole record is 100% emotional," McCready says. "My singing is more relaxed than it's ever been because I'm enjoying myself as I get lost in the song. The audience knows when you're really singing about something that means something to you. Each one of these songs touched me on an emotional level."

Often, Mindy found herself drawn to songs dealing boldly with women's sensuality and passions. "It's such a prevalent part of being in love," she says. "It's relevant to everybody's life every single day. I try to be as honest as I possibly can through my music, and if I can sing about a woman's sexuality in an artistic manner, I know that the audience will respond."

Mindy takes that same honest approach to each song, no matter what the mood. You can hear the smile in "Baby You Get To Me," about the sheer delight that one person can feel from being around someone they love. "I Just Want Love," describes a hunger for contact, matched perfectly to a sultry Latin rhythm. It also indulges McCready's love for salsa dancing. "I love the Latin sound, and this is a song that I can move to onstage when I perform it," she says. "Loving Your Man," delves into the complexities of being the "other woman." Though McCready hasn't been in that situation herself, she was moved by the story. "Sometimes that does happen to people, and it's not the right thing - it will never be the right thing - but knowing that something is wrong doesn't mean that you can help feeling the way you do, or that you don't feel for the other woman in the equation."

"Don't Speak," implores a partner to forget words and concentrate on feelings. "Sacrifice," describes the ultimate love. "Scream" builds to a crescendo of emotional outburst - all the pent-up anger, frustration and regret that emerge from a broken relationship churn together into the volcanic eruption that is the chorus. "When I heard this song a flood of emotions came out," says McCready. "It made me decide that it's okay to scream in my head, but it also inspired me to take action when I need to."

In many ways this whole album is a culmination of lessons learned for McCready, and action taken in response. At a mere 24-years-old, she's overcome great obstacles to achieve her dream, and found that reaching her goal meant facing new obstacles.

Committed to music from the day she could speak, McCready began formal training in opera at age nine. She graduated from high school at age 16 and moved to Nashville at 18 to pursue a career in country music. She struck a deal with her mother: If she didn't succeed in a year, she would go to college.

McCready immediately found work as a demo singer. At age nineteen she signed with RCA. Her debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, contained the hits "Guys Do It All The Time," "A Girl's Gotta Do (What A Girl's Gotta Do), "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now" and the title song. It was certified double platinum and McCready skyrocketed into the public consciousness.

All of a sudden she became a celebrity, whose personal life got scrutinized closely and discussed at the water cooler. "I don't get to have a lot of private emotions," she says. "I wasn't prepared for that at the beginning, but learned very quickly that I had to lay myself on the line. You don't get a choice. You can do it and like it, or you can do it and be miserable. And the way to avoid being miserable is to do things you're proud of and say things that you're proud of."

That applied especially to her music. Amid all the chaos of her new fame, music remained her outlet. It had to be honest, and that meant it had to ring true with her deep inside. As she made her second album, she learned to speak up, even if that meant going against the consensus. For her third album, she found a simpatico producer in Billy Joe Walker, who encouraged her both musically and personally. "He and I just mesh musically," Mindy says. "We like the same songs. We like the same sound. We like the same players. It's a match made in heaven."

Walker sat in the producer's chair again for this album, and McCready worked closely with him on every aspect of the record. She took every drop of experience that she had and used it. She learned to stop thinking about it all so hard and to feel, and then to put those feelings into every part of her album.

"Whether it makes you smile, cry or call your mom, the power of music is the way that it affects you," Mindy says. "The songs on this album absolutely kill me. I love what they say, and that means that I love singing them."





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