LYNN ANDERSON PERFORMS SERIES OF SHOWS AT RIVERSIDE RESORT

When teenager Lynn Anderson decided to try her hand at singing for a possible career, she didn't have to go far to find material. Her mom, Liz Anderson, wrote some of Merle Haggard's early hits including “The Fugitive�?and “All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers�?(Note: Haggard's band was named The Strangers due to the success of this latter song).

Lynn also didn't have to go knocking on Nashville's doors to get their attention either. Music City found her. An informal jam session in a Nashville hotel room with her mom, Freddie Hart and Merle Haggard was all the audition she needed.

Slim Williamson, the owner of a small Nashville record label, Chart Records, witnessed that impromptu session and invited Lynn to record in 1966. At the end of that year, she scored a Top 40 hit on the country charts with “Ride, Ride, Ride,�?a song penned, of course, by her mother. An album of the same name was also released. Anderson released another song from the album, “If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away),�?also written by her mother, which became a major country hit. The song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard country charts.

By the time she was 20, Anderson had scored a string of hits, “That's a No No,�?“Rocky Top,�?“Promises, Promises,�?“I've Been Everywhere,�?and “Big Girls Don't Cry.�?/P>

And she received national television exposure when she joined the cast of “The Lawrence Welk Show�?during the 1967-1968 season, becoming the first country act to regularly perform on the show. Thus, she was one of the first country artists to achieve “crossover�?success before there was even a term “crossover�?

In 1970, she signed with major label, Columbia Records and caught lightning in a bottle with a last minute song added to her first album-a song she insisted on adding even though executives didn't want to do it.

The song was, “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden�?and was written by Joe South, who had recorded his own version earlier which met with little commercial success. With extra studio time remaining and no songs left to record during this particular session, Anderson ran home and got the Joe South album that contained “Rose Garden.�?Reluctantly, her producer let her record the song.

Cha-Ching.

The song topped the country charts (staying at the No. 1 spot for five consecutive weeks), reached No. 3 on the Billboard Pop charts, and hit No. 1 on the Cashbox Pop charts, something that was virtually unheard of at the time. The song was also a hit in 15 countries around the world, and earned Anderson a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1971 (South also won a Grammy Award for writing the song).

Anderson's success did not end with “Rose Garden.�?“You're My Man�?was a No. 1 hit in 1971 and proved to be a successful follow-up, also reaching the Top 60 on the pop charts and even hit the adult contemporary Top 10, peaking at No. 6, giving Anderson another mainstream hit. She also hit pay dirt with her No. 1 hit, “How Can I Unlove You”and the Richard Carpenter-penned song, “Top of the World.�?BR>
In a career that has spanned more than four decades she has scored eight No. 1 records, 18 top tens, and more than 50 songs landing in the Top 40. She has earned a total of 17 gold albums. Billboard ranks Anderson among the top ten most successful female country artists for all-time record sales.

Some of her most recent awards include a Grammy nomination in 2004 for her Bluegrass Sessions album and last year she won Best Western Music CD/Album for Cowgirl (released in 2006), from the Academy of Western Artists. The collection is a tribute to her mother, who wrote all of the songs. At the same awards presentation, Liz Anderson was awarded Western Music Songwriter of the Year for “I Rode in as a Stranger.�?BR>
The Laughlin entertainer talked with Lynn Anderson when she came to town a few months ago. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

Q. You're a successful recording artist and an accomplished horsewoman. Which came first?

A. I've always been around horses. In fact, we were on our way to the Miss Rodeo California contest back in 1966, with horses in the back, when my mother wrote “Ride, Ride, Ride.�?Daddy drove and she wrote songs. That's when I announced that I was going to record that song. I was a teenager and didn't even know if I could sing at all, so they got a pretty good laugh out of that.

Q. Did you ever have to give up the horsemanship for the music or music for the horsemanship?

A. All my life, I've been a cowgirl and all my life I've loved music. A lot of times, I combined both. When I was growing up and going around to different rodeos, I'd be running in with my rodeo queen wave and a microphone in my hand.

Q. Rose Garden was the biggest selling album by a female country artist from 1971-1997. Did you have any idea that song would be that popular?

A. No. And it is amazing in that decade between 1970 and 1980, it was No. 1. I was right up there with The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkle. It was great and I worked with incredibly wonderful people because of it-like the late Porter Wagoner and Hank Thompson. It's amazing what three minutes of music can do.

Q. You were different than a lot of female country artists in the'70s. You didn't sound like any of them and you didn't dress like any of them. You were continually invited to appear on national TV becoming one of the first “crossover�?artists. Was that something you intentionally worked to do?

A. I was just very lucky, very blessed and in the right place at the right time. I came along about the time when country music was beginning to cross over. When I made “Rose Garden,�?they played it on pop radio-it was one of the first crossover songs. Others at the time were “For the Good Times�?by Ray Price (who ironically is playing Laughlin the same time as Anderson; see page 12) and “Help Me Make it Through the Night�?by Sammi Smith.

A couple of my records were both country and pop. While my recording of “Top of the World�?was the No. 1 country song, Karen Carpenter's version was No. 1 on the pop chart. My recording earned “Song of the Year,�?due to the fact that we both recorded it which made it even more popular for both of us.

“Rocky Top�?was a bluegrass song and I ended up taking that song to a place I never thought of it going because of TV exposure; because of Lawrence Welk. I was a teenager singing country music on the Lawrence Welk show right at a time when people who never listened to country music got curious. Marty Robbins crossed over, Ray Charles crossed over.

Q. Talk about the country music scene for women in the 70s and how your music affected it.

A. I was the only chick singer on national TV. It was all in the timing. If a girl wanted to sing, she had to be with a band or another well-known male act. Dolly Parton was with Porter Wagoner; Loretta Lynn was with the Wilburn Brothers; Connie Smith was with Bill Anderson. Maybe it came with the women's movement in the work place and independence-it was great to be the first woman to form my own band in the late'60 and early'70s.

It was strange to have the woman be the boss. It wasn't that I wanted to crack the bull whip or anything, but in those days the woman stood on an X and sang one or two songs and that was it. It's how girl singers were treated. Nobody knew what to do with female country music singers other than to put you in a gingham dress and plop you in front of a bale of hay. They learned it was okay for a girl to dress up in pretty clothes.

I never worked with gals until recently when it was with Tanya Tucker and Crystal Gayle.

Q. Why the “Lawrence Welk Show?�?BR>
A. Lawrence Welk, Jr. liked the photo of me on the album cover of Ride, Ride, Ride. He thought I was cute and he said, “Daddy, can I have that?�?He liked horses, too. We were in North Dakota visiting my grandmother when I got this phone call and they told me, “Lawrence Welk is on the line.�?I thought, “yeah, right.�?I knew they were joking. But it was really him and he offered me a job. My mom and dad tried to get me married to Larry Jr., but it didn't happen. We're still good friends. I still see him about once a year.

Q. Your sophisticated image changed the look of country music as much as your music. Was that your choosing?

A. When I first started on The Lawrence Welk Show, he told me what to sing and what to wear. They had me singing “Buttons and Bows�?all trussed up in their buttons and bows, bustle and high button shoes-with a parasol. I thought I looked ridiculous. I was young and stupid-I could have gotten fired-but I went to Mr. Welk and told him that song wasn't country music and I didn't want to sing songs like that. Mr. Welk said, in that voice of his, “What do you want to sing, Lynn?�?I told him I wanted to sing real country music. He let me sing songs from my records and from current country radio. He also let me dress like a regular country female singer with pretty clothes and big hair.

Q. Is there a project you've always wanted to accomplish?

A. I always wanted to record with Ray Price (ed. note: maybe it'll happen in Laughlin this week?)