Tim Mcgraw Helps Fan Pop The Question During Portland Show
Everybody seems to have a Valentine story, and now country star Tim McGraw has one, too. Before his Valentine’s Day concert in Portland, Ore., McGraw was contacted by a very persistent 25-year-old construction contractor named Doug Dummer of Forest Grove, Ore., who wanted McGraw to help him propose to his girlfriend, Traci Viner, 24, of Hillsboro, Ore.
Dummer (pronounced Doomer) explained that Viner had been expecting an engagement ring for months, but he had let several appropriate holidays and other significant dates go by without doing anything and felt she was about ready to give up on ever getting a commitment from him.
Then, he said, he heard McGraw’s big hit, “I Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way,” and realized he couldn’t imagine his life without Viner in it. So he got tickets to the Portland show and kept trying until he got through to McGraw’s organization to ask for help.
That night, Viner came to the show thinking the tickets were her Valentine gift - until McGraw called her and Dummer up out of the audience and onto the stage, where Dummer presented her with a single solitaire engagement ring and a family heirloom ruby and diamond wedding ring.
McGraw and his band then played “I Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way” as the couple danced onstage. Oh, by the way, she said yes.
Krauss crossing over
Without compromising her own musical ideals, 23-year-old acoustic diva Alison Krauss is sneaking into wider and wider recognition from the country mainstream.
Krauss is fresh from breaking into Billboard’s country charts and the country Top 20 for the first time via her duet appearance on the Shenandoah song, “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart.” And she now is getting into the radio hit charts and various video shows with “When You Say Nothing At All,” a single from BNA Records’ compilation tribute album to Keith Whitley.
Her label, Rounder Records, also is having success pitching Krauss’ awesome new album, “Now That I’ve Found You,” to the new “Americana” hit chart of adult alternative music. The chart, which now runs in the Gavin Report, tracks music that doesn’t fit into established formats.
Finally, a headliner
With a new single, “I Can Love You Like That,” from the forthcoming album “John Michael” (scheduled for release March 28), hot John Michael Montgomery has just launched his first headlining tour. The foray also features The Tractors on most of its early dates, with newcomer Ken Mellons also performing in some of the shows.
Mavericks have a Carpenter
One of the hotter tours coming from the left side of the country spectrum this year promises to be that of two-time Country Music Association female vocalist of the year Mary Chapin Carpenter and the rebellious Miami-based country band, the Mavericks. Carpenter and the Mavericks are expected to work together for most of the year.
He’s the real McCoy
Neal McCoy was the fastest-moving artist on the Billboard pop album chart the other day, jumping from No. 104 to No. 69 with his brand-new album, “You Gotta Love That.” (On the country chart he was No. 10.)
McCoy, who has been around the national country scene for a decade and who this year is performing with Alabama, has “been on the road forever” working with crowd-drawing acts, says Atlantic Records spokesman Lynn Shults.
“He has played before the core group of country fans for a while, and they know that he is a great stage performer,” Shults says. “I saw him the other night in Indiana, and when he came out he got almost the kind of roar you get with a headliner.”
Highwaymen ride again
Country music’s continually collaborative Big Four - Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, known collectively as The Highwaymen - are readying another album for the market, and its material promises much.
The album also contains songs written by each of these four masters of the pen.