LITTLE ROCK — Singers from two generations - Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson - have combined their talents and embarked on what they're calling 2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour 2008 1 stage 1 band 1 night 2 superstars.
In other words, this is not constructed like traditional tours, where the young star opens for the veteran star. Rather, the two women will share the stage, backed by one combined band in what press materials describe as "one seamless, no-intermission show."
McEntire decided that she and Clarkson would make for a powerful touring package after McEntire released Reba Duets, an album of songs where McEntire shared the billing with some of her favorite singers, one of whom was Clarkson.
"Kelly Clarkson came in and all the studio musicians were there and she said, 'I can't believe you all are all here at the same time!'" McEntire said in press materials. "It was really cute.
She loved it, and she's going to try to do it that way when she records next time."
The two singers met when Clarkson, an eventual winner on the TV reality show, American Idol, was still competing to win the top position on the show.
"Kelly chose me to come on to the show and sing 'Does He Love You' with her," McEntire writes.
Clarkson made her decision based on who she had looked up to and McEntire was the first choice, and the encounter led to a friendship based on music and more.
"She's from Burleson, Texas, the same place my husband's from," McEntire writes. "She's half my age but we have a blast together. We have a lot of the same influences and likes.
She's a people person, so am I, and it's just a lot of fun to hang out with her."
After the two had cut a song together, they took collaboration to another level: an episode of Country Music Television's Crossroads series.
"We got on the stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and just hada blast," McEntire says. "I love her music, it was so much fun to sing, and she loves to sing mine."
Each singer performed four of the other's songs, including "Because of You," which Clarkson had written when she was 16. As he listened to the song, McEntire's husband/manager, Narvel Blackstock, saw a potential hit.
"Narvel came up to me and said, 'Reba, "Because of You" has got to be on [the Reba Duets] album," she recalls. "'Because of You' is a killer country song, in my opinion. You know, country music is all about heartbreak and sad, deep, heartwrenching tell-it-all ... it's therapeutic for me. The emotion you hear in that song is very heartfelt, very honest, it's not fake."
McEntire and Clarkson's "Because of You" became the first single on McEntire's Duets album, which also contains songs by McEntire singing with Justin Timberlake, Trisha Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, Carole King, Vince Gill, Faith Hill and Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn. The album was released in September 2007.
McEntire has a newer album, 50 Greatest Hits, that was released Oct. 28. The three-CD set includes a booklet, color photos and McEntire's thoughts on turning 50 a few years ago.
"I embraced turning 50," she writes.
"To me, it was a huge accomplishment! Every year that I am alive, I feel so much happier and so grateful for all I've learned and received. Looking for the 50 songs for this project, I was reminded of where I was in my life and career when I recorded each song.
"Just like a birthday, I love each of these songs for meaning so much to me then, and now."
The final song on the set is the McEntire/Clarkson duet on "Because of You."
McEntire, who was born March 28, 1955, in McAlester, Okla., divorced her first husband in 1987, after 11 years of marriage. She then moved to Nashville, Tenn., and married her manager, Blackstock, in 1989. The couple had a son in February 1990 and moved to Southern California when McEntire began a TV sitcom, Reba, in 2001; the show ended a year ago. She had first tried her hand at acting when she took the role of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun earlier in 2001.
Clarkson, born April 24, 1982, was the winner of the first season of American Idol in 2002. She has since released three albums: Thankful in 2002, Breakaway in 2004 and My December in 2007.
On Breakaway, she co-wrote some of the songs with Ben Moody and David Hodges, who had been in the original lineup of the band Evanescence, which was started in Little Rock.
Of the process that went into writing songs for My December, Clarkson says in her press biography that "the record is about me, why I make the decisions I do.
Most of my songs are about what's happening in my life. For me, it's like free therapy. Whether it's me growing, or helping someone else get through similar circumstances."
In July 2007, she signed on with Starstruck Entertainment, run by McEntire's husband, a month after she canceled a tour because of poor ticket sales. She won Grammy Awards in 2006 for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single, "Since U Been Gone" and for Best Pop Vocal Album for Breakaway.
She appeared on a January 2007 episode of Reba and on Jan.
17, she and McEntire began their 2 Worlds, 2 Voices Tour 2008.
Blender magazine in its August 2007 issue had praise for Clarkson's voice.
"If Mariah Carey's five-octave voice is the equivalent of an expensively bred poodle, then Clarkson's is a bloodhound: friendly, earthy, but fierce just the same."Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson 8 p.m. Saturday, Alltel Arena, East Broadway and Interstate 30, North Little Rock Tickets: $49.50, $59.50 (501) 975-7575, www.ticketmaster.com or all Ticketmaster outlets
Weekend, Pages 72 on 11/14/2008