BY WA RREN DENNE Y
The first thing you hear is her heart. Trisha Yearwood is one of those singers, at the ready to work through the world, good or bad, sympathetic to the right fight.
Her voice cuts through the noise — emotional, powerful, elastic, and she sings about heartbreak, longing, and exhilaration with honest bearing. Yearwood can go anywhere with a song, and through that emotional carry, she delivers kinship. To tell the story, you must feel the story. “As a young girl, before I had any real life experience, I was dramatic,” Yearwood said from home, just before Christmas. “I’d sing those [Linda] Ronstadt songs like I had a broken heart — when I had never even kissed a boy. But still, it meant so much to me. And I was always drawn to songs that commiserated with you. When you want to go down that rabbit hole, or you’re feeling like your life is a mess, you want to hear a song that says, ‘Yeah, I get it. I’m there, too.’ You want to hear a song that says, ‘Oh my God … here’s how I feel.’” continued on page 22
20 THE NASHVILLE MUSICIAN
