Tanya Tucker

She’s been called one of the finest song stylists in any genre, a singer who owns the patent on any song she sings.  Tanya Tucker’s inimitable vocal stylings and soulful performances have resulted in a string of hit albums and singles, garnered hundreds of honors and awards and made her a country music legend.  On June 30th, Tanya releases her newest album, My Turn, a collection of songs done up like no one else could ever do.  She takes on classic country hits originally recorded by men and turns them on their heads, transforming some of the most melancholy songs ever written into anthems of girl power and austere strength.

The Texas Tornado was born on October 10, 1958 in Seminole, Texas, located on the Panhandle Plains that locals call the land of “…tumbleweeds, pump-jacks, windmills and four open horizons.”  It was the perfect place for a tornado to show up.

Tanya was a precocious child.  She cut her first tooth at 5 months, was driving the family Volkswagen around the yard by age 4 and riding horses before she turned 5.  “One day I just started singing,” she says.  And by the time she was 8, she was copying everything she heard on the country radio:  Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves and Hawkshaw Hawkins.

Tanya’s father, Beau Tucker, worked any job he could find to keep the family going.  He was at various times a pilot, a prospector and a heavy equipment operator.  The Tuckers were living in Wilcox, Arizona when Tanya started singing at talent contests and appearing on the stage with visiting celebrities like Mel Tillis and Ernest Tubb.  Then, while Beau was working on a pipeline in St. George, Utah, Tanya landed a part in Robert Redford’s film Jeremiah Johnson.  It didn’t turn out to be a show business break, but it helped convince Beau Tucker that stardom was possible, even if you had no industry contacts.