“I’m fighting through some bronchitis,” Tanya Tucker admitted early into her Saturday evening show at the Nutty Brown Cafe. “I guess I’ll just sound like Johnny Cash.”
The 59-year-old country superstar’s voice stung noticeably low and raw, far from the feathered twang of her youth. Yet the Texas native still powered through a rowdy 90-minute, 20-song set with a defiant and appreciative fervor. Although the Country Music Hall of Fame still hasn’t inducted the 10-time Grammy nominee, her string of hits made a convincing appeal.
Opener “Some Kind of Trouble” burned bluesy behind an eightpiece band and Tucker kicked and shimmied rebelliously around the stage through “Hangin’ In” and “Walking Shoes.” The sparse but enthusiastic amphitheatre audience sang along to every word. “Strong Enough to Bend,” “Love Me Like You Used To,” and “If Your Heart Ain’t Busy Tonight” continued the run of Top 5 charters, Tucker’s tales of a life spent in country’s limelight crackling hilarious and compelling.
Introducing “Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone),” she recalled the awkwardness of David Allan Coe pitching the song to her 15-year-old self. The anecdote reinforced the singer’s role as a bridge between Seventies outlaw country and the neo-traditional and pop sounds of the genre in the Eighties and Nineties. Tucker remains a precursor to modern Lone Star leading lights like Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, and Sunny Sweeney.
After handing over two songs to her daughter Presley’s duo, Reverie Lane, Tucker roared through tributes to Cash, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, and the Eagles, and fiery birth state ode “Texas (When I Die).” Voice loosened for the final drive, “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane” rang beautifully and the closing turn of “Amazing Grace” into “Delta Dawn” precluded any need for an encore.
This article appears in June 22 • 2018.
