ASHLAND —
CMA Female Vocalist of the Year and Grand Ole Opry member Pam Tillis and her longtime friend and country music artist Lorrie Morgan will present a show, part of the Kentucky Music Trail, on Aug. 28 at the Paramount Arts Center.
Tillis said the two met more than 10 years ago.
“We have just gotten to know each other through touring, but when we sat down and talked, when it’s just the two of us and we compare notes, our lives look really similar,” Tillis said. “We have an awful lot in comon and you don’t get that every day.”
The two go back to the 1990s, when they toured together in the first all-female music tour with Carlene Carter. “This was before Lilith Fair,” Tillis pointed out. “We were doing sheds — small outdoor arenas. We enjoyed it. We really had some good times and we got a lot of airplay.”
Although the two women have had different experiences, they’ve maintained a friendship, as well as their careers, Tillis said.
“We are still able to work and play some wonderful places — performing arts centers and theaters. It’s amazing,” she said. “A lot of people in country music have one or two hits and you never hear from them any more, but 20 years later, we’re still working. It’s fantastic. It’s a celebration when we get together. We’re more mature and wiser and still out there having a great time.”
Tillis said she has performed in Ashland a few times, but keeping up with each town she visits is difficult: “People ask where I’m going this weekend and I say, ‘I have no idea. I just get on the bus and wherever we stop is where we get off.”
During the show in Ashland, the two will be onstage together the entire show, Tillis said. “We arm wrestled to see who would open and close and it was a tie,” she said, joking. But the arrangement is unusual.
“We probably didn’t make up the setup, but I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone else do it,” she said. “It’s stripped down, semi-acoustic, which I love. Each song plays off the other; it’s like a musical conversation. We talk with each other and with the audience.”
The show will consist of both performers’ hits and some country standards.
Tillis, however, has a new album, titled Rhinestoned and it was released on her own label, which she said she enjoyed because of the new-found artistic freedom her own label allowed her.
“The climate is so tough right now,” she said. “Money is so tight. Just the pressure on artists from a major label is tremendous.
“Radio was really, really good to me, but I played the game so long, I just feel like I don’t have to do that anymore. WIth your own label, you can do your own thing and market it the way you see fit with nobody standing over your shoulder telling you what to do.”
The music, though, is a reminder of her roots.
“My taste in music is the same as in the past,” she said. “People have always said, ‘You cut real songs and good songs.’ I have a high standard for material, but I’ve moved away a little from the mainstream trend in Nashville and my own taste has gotten back to my roots more — a little bit more country. I don’t think most of my fans have a problem with that.”
Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan will perform together at 8 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Paramount Arts Center. Tickets are on sale at the Paramount Box Office. For more information, call (606) 324-3175.
LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.
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