Pam Tillis

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=966331" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=125 BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03c467d1euxmic.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Kristi Singer</b></FONT><B>     </b><B>|     </b><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kristi Singer"><U><B>home</b></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id225.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Painted Man"><U>Painted Man</U></A>   |   <B>Pam Tillis</b>   |   <A HREF="id102.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Papa Roach"><U>Papa Roach</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id162.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Patrick Rock Band"><U>Patrick Rock Band</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id122.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Patrik Michaels"><U>Patrik Michaels</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id82.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pearl Jam"><U>Pearl Jam</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id230.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Peter Noone"><U>Peter Noone</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id194.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Plain White Bread"><U>Plain White Bread</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id153.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PYT"><U>PYT</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writing Samples"><U><B>Back to Articles</b></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=355 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Pam Tillis</div> <div> <B>Pam Tillis has made room for daddy</b></div> <div> By Kristi Singer</div> <div> <I>Star-News Correspondent</I></div> <div> October 17, 2002</div> <div>  </div> <div> Pam Tillis feels better about her latest release every day. It’s All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, the country artist’s eighth album, pays tribute to her father and country legend, Mel Tillis. </div> <bR> <div> “I feel better about it all the time. I’m getting so much wonderful feedback from people who had heard it, and it makes me feel so good. I ran into a girl last night, and she said that she loved hearing this kind of country music again, and she bought 12 copies and gave them out to her friends,” Ms. Tillis said in a phone interview from Nashville.</div> <bR> <div> The 1994 CMA Female Vocalist of the Year said the album marks a turning point in her career. </div> <bR> <div> “I don’t think everything I do will be retro, but I like the organic sound of this album. I tried to make it be very real and not too overproduced and slick,” said Ms. Tillis, who will perform Monday at the State Fair in Raleigh.</div> <bR> <div> The idea to record a tribute to her father, who was one of the first full-time songwriters to reside in Nashville, was something Ms. Tillis has wanted to do for years. </div> <bR> <div> “A lot of artists have done tribute albums to people who have inspired and been a part of their musical development, and that’s nothing new. Natalie Cole did the album for her dad. I think it’s a little different because (my dad’s) still here. It’s not something that I waited to do after he was gone,” Ms. Tillis said.</div> <bR> <div> It’s All Relative developed gradually over the last decade, she said. Every year, she would work up a different song by her father to perform on the road, and after five or six years, she realized that she had half of an album completed. </div> <bR> <div> “People always loved hearing the old stuff. And they appreciate when I acknowledge my background. And Dad’s got a lot of fans out there – they love him. So that was always a nice moment in the show,” Ms. Tillis said.</div> <bR> <div> Ms. Tillis said the time was right on a personal level for her to release a tribute. She reached a point where she felt that her own identity was established outside of being the daughter of a country legend.</div> <bR> <div> “For all these years, I’ve been doing my own thing and trying to carve out my own niche and make a name for myself and not stand on my family laurels. I felt I was at a point in my career where I had accomplished enough that I could do this with people knowing I wasn’t trying to capitalize on it,” Ms. Tillis said. “It was something I did for sentimental reasons. If we sell a million, I’ll be thrilled, but no matter what happens with this album, I have to do this for me and for my family.”</div> <bR> <div> The tribute album was not a surprise to Mr. Tillis. His daughter kept him posted along the way. In fact, Mr. Tillis was so excited about the project, he offered to pay for it, she said. </div> <bR> <div> “I said, ‘No Dad, you don’t have to pay for it, we’ll do it the regular way. The record label will pay for it, Dad. I’ve got my own record deal, thank you,’ ” Ms. Tillis said.</div> <bR> <div> According to Ms. Tillis, her father’s favorite tracks are Detroit City, Violet and a Rose and So Wrong.</div> <bR> <div> “He’s ready for Volume Two. He’s picking out the songs right now. That’s the ultimate compliment that he likes the way I did them. It’s so funny to me that the guy with the 15-piece band likes the more acoustic numbers,” Ms. Tillis said. </div> <bR> <div> Ms. Tillis invited many guests to appear on It’s All Relative, including Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood, Dolly Parton, The Jordanaires, Delbert McClinton and Marty Stuart. </div> <bR> <div> “All these people that sang on the record came to my home. It was kind of like a sitcom for a few weeks: Ding-dong, it’s Emmylou Harris; ding-dong, it’s The Jordanaires; ding-dong, you open the door, it’s Dolly Parton,” Ms. Tillis said. </div> <bR> <div> The album also includes an all-Tillis track, Come On and Sing. Ms. Tillis invited her father, siblings and grandchildren to sing along. The recording session took a full day in Ms. Tillis’ home studio, which she calls Mood Swing Studios.</div> <bR> <div> “It was funny; I tell everybody it was like locusts hit the house. </div> <div> Everything in the house that could be eaten was gone. We spent a lot of money on groceries that day. You know how family gatherings are, you have to feed everybody,” Ms. Tillis said.</div> <bR> <div> The two Tillises will hit the road in January to perform 30-40 dates together, Ms. Tillis said.</div> <bR> <div> “I haven’t been on the road with my dad since I was 18 years old. It’s </div> <div> an opportunity I don’t want to miss,” Ms. Tillis said.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>