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B4 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, October 13, 1999 Arts & Entertainment Michelle Wright concert when she couldn't get one in her native land. And that deal, she added, was her ticket out of the bars and into a record­ ing studio. At first, she said, she tried to work with the U. S. record company from Canada, but it just wasn't feasible. And, despite her move, that record deal signified the beginning of her increasing popularity both in Canada and the United States. "I have no regrets. It's a great place to be for the music business, that's for sure...When you look at the awards shows, it's the artists that have international, world-wide careers that are awarded the most. They are the most suc­ cessful," said the winner of two Juno Awards and over a dozen Canadian Country Music Awards. "My career would not have been what it became without the American record deal. And then I would never have sur­ vived without Canada. It's kind of a circle of support that allows me to keep doing what I'm doing...To this day. I'm amazed at how much support I get in Canada." The popular country singer said she is starting to spend more time at home writing songs and less time on the road nowadays, which, she said, "I sure don't mind. Now, I have a real bounds in my life. At one point being out there 250 days of the year was totally normal. And in my early career, more than that." Wright, who was bom in Chatham, Ontario, said she'll be arriving in Oakville about a week before her band so she can visit with her sister, who lives in town. "We're going to have a great weekend. My brother's coming up from Highgate Ontario. Then I'm going to write for three days - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Then I'm going to do (concerts in) Brampton and Oakville," she said. In Oakville, Wright will be singing many of her popular hits, along with some of the new songs from the Greatest Hits album and one she hasn't even recorded yet. She will be performing twice in one evening, with one concert at 7:30 p.m. and the second at 10. "A lot of artists that I know work pretty hard. Maybe there's an assumption that what we do isn't hard, but it is," she said of her grueling schedule. "I was raised on a farm and was always used to hard work. I'm not afraid of hard work. It doesn't faze me." The country life she spoke of was also instrumental in turning her on to country music, along with the fact that her parents were country music singers. "My brand of country music is a sort of combination of pop, R&B and country. Being raised just across the border from Detroit, it has strong Motown influences as well. I've always kind of been crossover, but the newer music that I'm doing is definitely more crossover," she explained. "But I always loved country music, the traditional artists like Hank Williams Senior and Merle Haggard and George Jones and Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. In that day and age, there was really great country music being made." And although she expressed a love for the new country music that jams today's airwaves, she's afraid it's being promoted at the expense of some of the traditional artists. "There are incredible country singers in this town (Nashville) that aren't being heard.. .In country music, you've got contemporary and traditional all trying to fit into a 21-song play list; and a lot of great talent is overlooked," she explained. "I really love the contemporary country music; I've always been drawn to that. But I've also really enjoy a traditional country song when I hear it, with a great traditional voice." And it's the unique country voice that seems to drawn the Canadian-born singer to country music. In fact, she said, her only complaint about new country music is that the voices cannot be distinguished from one another. "All of those artists that I mentioned, when you hear them sing, you know it's them," she said. "You used to have to have something distinctive in your voice before a record label would even look at you." But that's not a problem for Wright. Not only does she have recording studios willing to open their doors to her, she also began having scripts sent to her after her appear­ ance in an episode of Due South. Her experience on the set was a positive one, and one that she's anxious to repeat. So, she's been reading scripts ever since, but hasn't found one with her name on it, yet. "We do receive a few (scripts) a year, but you've got to be very careful about what you pick," she explained. "If something comes up, we'll take a look at it for sure." Tickets for both of Wright's concerts at the Oakville Cen­ tre on Oct. 29th are $47.99 ($38.39 for Big Ticket members; $35.99 for Big Ticket Plus members), and are available by visiting or calling the box office at 130 Navy St., 815-2021. Mix a little bit of old with a little bit of new, and you've got the recipe fir Michelle Wright's concerts coming up on OcL 29th. In a telephone interview from her Nashville home, Wright said the select number of shows she's doing in southern Ontario this month were scheduled to promote her new Greatest Hits album as well as her next album. The Greatest Hits album, she said, has 12 hits and four new songs. One of the new ones, When 1 Found You, which she wrote, is already receiving air time. And, with the advent of recording technology, another "new" song on the album is one that has Wright and the late Patsy Cline singing a duet of Cline's popular favourite Walking After Midnight. Wright's decision to move to Nashville from Canada, she said, was simple - she landed an American record dealM ichelle W right BEST CHOICES, BEST ALUE/I..YOUR BEST BET! 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