Queen Of Country Reba Mcentire Is One Of Country’s Most Popular, Most Productive Stars
The new Spokane Arena gets its first full-tilt sell-out Sunday when Reba McEntire comes to town.
Tracy Byrd and Rhett Akins will open.
Tickets to McEntire’s show sold out the day they went on sale, the best indicator of her continuing status as the reigning queen of country music.
McEntire is a great candidate for first-sell-out status: Her big production, Las Vegas-style show with its tiered stage, big-screen videos and multiple costume changes, should show off the new building’s capabilities.
And her wall-rattling rock ‘n’ roll band will test the Arena’s state-ofthe-art sound system. McEntire is the heir apparent to Dolly Parton, a shrewd no-nonsense businesswoman who has built a conglomerate around its most valuable asset - herself.
Twenty years ago, she was living in a cold-water Nashville flat; today, she presides over a $10 million corporation that includes a management company, a booking agency, a jet charter company, a construction firm, a horse ranch, an advertising agency and three publishing companies.
To promote her show here, McEntire’s management company, Starstruck Entertainment sent out a promo packet as slick as any in corporate America.
She started the construction company to build her horse barns, and if McEntire doesn’t get here on one of her own planes, it will be in a bus she owns.
In corporate America, that’s called vertical integration: In McEntire’s world, it’s just smart business.
“I’m gonna sound like a greedy, driven, possessed woman,” she told a magazine reporter this year, “but that’s pretty much what you have to be to get ahead.”
Two of the support acts - Linda Davis and Rhett Akins - are signed to Starstruck. Davis was a backup singer in McEntire’s band when the star tapped her to sing the part of the other woman in “Does He Love You.” Now she gets her own spot on the bill and a glossy in the press kit.
And if she becomes a big star, guess whose management company gets the credit.
Of course, the behind-the-scenes folderol would amount to very little if McEntire didn’t pull it all together where it counts -in the studio and onstage. And, despite taking grief for moving the edge of country a lot closer to rock than some people like, she still gets the job done.
Witness the box-office frenzy when her Spokane show went on sale.
For the past 10 years - since she seized control of her own career - McEntire has been one of country’s most productive stars. Her superstar co-producer, Tony Brown, has grown accustomed to letting her have her head.
He argued against recording “Does He Love You” - too dark, he said - and when McEntire won that one, he was smart enough to stay on the sidelines when others argued for using a big star in the second part, not a no-name like Linda Davis.
“I kept thinking, ‘I’m not going to get into this discussion because I know who it’s going to be in the end. That’s what Reba wants, and, by the way, she’s right.”’
The footnote: Davis used “Does He Love You” as a springboard to a contract with Arista Records. Her second Arista release, “Some Things Are Meant To Be,” came out in January.
Rhett Akins is a newcomer whose first public appearance was his brother-in-law’s wedding rehearsal dinner five years ago. His debut record, “A Thousand Memories,” was also released in January, and his first big hit, “That Ain’t My Truck,” has been all over the airwaves this year.
Tracy Byrd may be the odd man out in this four-singer lineup - he’s not with Starstruck - but he’s a good fit all the same. He’s best known for a string of dance-hall hits capped by the smash, “Watermelon Crawl” - and for a ballad, “Keeper Of The Stars.”
The record those two singles came from, “No Ordinary Man,” sold a million copies, and earlier this year, he released his third record, “Love Lessons,” which immediately went gold and spawned another huge hit, “Walking to Jerusalem.”
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: REBA MCENTIRE Location and time: The Arena, Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: Sold out