Intro:

Brian Mansfield (Freelance Music Critic, USA Today, Cdnow.com): "Martina sounds like she has no fear. A blue-eyed angel in a leather jacket."

Marty Schiff: "And the crowds.. I... I have always loved her, even when nobody knew who she was."

Tom Douglas ("Love's The Only House co-author):"Her family is out here, which is really cool. Actually (...) herself, how to be able to pull this off."

Greg Foresman (guitar player): "I think she'd give her career up, if she had to make a choice. I know she would."

Martina McBride grew up on a farm in a small town of Sharon, Kansas. Her father Darryl Schiff had a popular weekend band, called The Schiffters. Martina joined the band and as a little girl she amazed fans with a Little Jimmy Dickens' song called "I'm Little But I'm Loud."

Today with six successful CDs, multiple awards and the admiration of the music industry, she continues to move and astound people with her voice.

A clip of CMA Awards '99 is shown.

Martina: "If i were to win, it would be amazing. Of course I would be happy, it would be a joyful thing. Really it would be a joyful thing for the people around me that work heir butts off."

Martina: "I have to tell him before we go every year 'John, you know, just if we don't win, just let's not let it... let's just have a good time anyway. It's OK, I'm OK with it."

John McBride: "Martina has never worried about the awards. That's my job I guess. I mean I... I'm probably little too competitive sometimes. I always, I always think 'O man, I know she's gonna do great. I know she's gonna win and... ' Oh well, you know, what do you do..."

John McBride: "To me Martina's such a true, natural, pure talent. If she dumbed me tomorrow, I'd still think she should win whatever she should win, because she is so talented."

Martina: "I'm aware that what's coming out of my mouth has cliche sound, but I have to tell you it's the truth. I feel so honored just to be nominated."

Greg Foresman:"But you know, she deserves it. She could (...) sing."

Brian Mansfield: "Martina's voice is electrifying. It's... it's loud, it's emotional, it's... it's just stunning."

Tom Douglas: "(...) of just pure voice. She's a... I mean... a great singer. But I mean I don't know anybody that just sings, you know, has more power, but also... I mean power is one thing, they're a lot of people that have power, but her interpretive skills are, are just (...)"

Joe Gelante (Chairman, RCA label group): "She's learned how not just to use the power at full force, but to make it softer and kind of caress you with it and then kind of pull you in. And then completely surround you with it.')

People say what they will about her remarkable talent, but Martina remains unshakebly modest.

Martina: "As far as what... how people would say about my singing, it's... You know, it always makes me feel great. I don't really know if I get exactly what they're saying. I know that I just go out there and sing, really."

Joe Gelante: "She understates herself. I mean she's not somebody that 's full of herself as singer. She knows it's gift, she's grateful for it. But she's got it. She's... she's never off."

Brian Mansfield: "I remember (...) at the TV taping for the CMAs 40th anniversary show. And yeah, a lot of industry people, it was a TV taping, so it was starting and stopping and... so TV taping is really kind of a dull evening, except for when the people are on stage. There'd been this real long pause and all of a sudden Martina came out and broke in to 'A Broken Wing.' And you could just feel the heads turn in thet place, because it sounded so much better, so much more powerful than anything that happened that night. When she finished that song, everybody was up. Everybody was clapping and screaming and shouting. And this was an industry crowd. Because it was just that amazing!

Martina: "I don't really even know sometimes what I do, but I just kind of go out there and do it. And if people are moved by that, then of course that makes me feel good."

For her latest CD, Emotion, Martina chose songs that touch the listener on levels ranging from dispair to hope and care-free happiness. The songs are closely felt by Martina.

Martina: "These songs really seem to be... I seem to be more inside the song when I'm singing it. And just lyrically, you know, I always look for songs like this and I think I found a collection of songs that lyrically are just really honest and true."

Gretchen Peters ("Independence Day" author): "I think she has a very strong sense of whether a song is right for her. And whether she can put herself into it. I mean it's easy to like all kinds of songs, ballads and uptempos and rock songs and everything, but to be able to put yourself into it and be convincing is not so easy."

Brian Mansfield: "Martina really likes songs with guts."

Martina: "I found this song that I'm so excited about and I just wanna share it with you. It says something I think needs to be said, something I think the world need to hear. It's called 'Love's The Only House.'"

Martina: "Love's The Only House" is a song filled with hope and promise for anyone in pain.

Paul Worley (Martina's co-producer): "This is one of those anthemic songs, it just takes your breath away. It's one of the best songs I've ever had occasion to record.")

Martina: "When I heard it I was just... I had that immediate reaction like I had with 'Independence Day'. I just knew that I had to record this song and it's something that I think the world needs to hear."

Buzz Cason ("Love's The Only House co-author):"We're both believers and we've always prayed that our songs would be a blessing to someone. And that we would bring (...) what we do, so I think that in this song you (...) it.")

Martina: "We've been performing it live and just getting tremendous... that real like passionate kind of response from the audience."

Tom Douglas: "The theme that unites the song is there is really a lot of pain, there's a lot of, you know, people feel (...), people feel alone. But there is a call that action in the song is.... We need to get involved in each other's lives. We need to better neighbors. And love for God is really... You know, that's the only house, that's the only thing big enough to contain and to help each other through the pain that we all experience on a day to day basis."

"This Uncivil War" is another song from Emotion with guts. It was written by Independence Day's Gretchen Peters.

Gretchen Peters: "I think 'This Uncivil War' might be my favorite cut that I've ever gotten by any artist in any genre.

Martina: "Everytime I think of this little family, fighting all these outside's problems, you know, the money problems and having to find... you know, being out of work and... All these problems that they have to face and they're... Like the line says 'They're so place to run for cover, so they're turning on each other.' You know, I think that's really  true, I think that happens a lot and you have to kind of remember not to turn on the people that are closest to you. And a family especially. So that song really hits me hard."

Gretchen Peters: " It's kind of a desperate kind of a song about, about a family and that's... in dire straits. And she seemed to really understand the whole gest of it and  it's a beautiful, beautiful cut. I'm really, really proud of it."

Martina: "It really hits me emotionally. You know, that's one of the songs when I was thinking about naming the album Emotion that really fit that."

("And we did a rough mix somewhere along the way. That was truly magical, just great. And Martina kept coming back in the studio "Will you listen to that rough mix?' And 'Well, not in a while.' 'God, it's great, I'm tellin' you, it;s great!' 'Well, yeah, OK.... Now can we work in this?' And at the end of the day we were mixing the album and we found out that we couldn't beat that rough mix. So that's the record.")

When we come back, Martina addresses those who criticize her for crossing over to pop.

***

Martina's voice doesn't land it soft to a traditional caountry sound comparing to artists like Patty Loveless or Reba McEntire, but her songs are definitely country, both musically and lyrically.

Paul Worley: "We took 'Broken Wing" up to VH1 and we walked in to the VH1 folks that who I've known and (...) it's a general manager... And we walked in there, we'd been friends with this guy for years and said 'We've got a great act, Martina McBride. You need to hear this, play the video, Broken Wing.' They got through watching it and they looked at us and said 'That is a great country record.'"

Martina: "The thing I love about country music is it's America's music. It's the music that most closely I believe reflects our culture. Musically it's always been a melting pot, you know. It's always had elements of rock and of bluegrass and some rockabilly and (...) music, but the lyrics have always been about mainstream country values, family, stuff that comes from your heart. And the thing that I think has never changed with country music."

Brian Mansfield: "Country songs have always been about something. They, they may tell a story, they may express an emotion, but they're usually very clear on exactly what it is they wanna say."

Gretchen Peters: "I guess if there is one thing that means country music to me, that's storytelling."

Martina: "I've done a lot of songs that are storytelling. You know, I put myself as the storyteller, like 'A Broken Wing' and 'Independence Day'. You know there is a really moving song, me telling a story."

As a result of her story telling songs, Martina has released some memorable hit videos.

Brian Mansfield: "It's some ways, it's kind of like your (...) song or the Billy Joe, which (...) this huge (...) on what was it that Billy Joe McAllister dropped off to her (...) And 'A Broken Wing' and 'Independence Day' both have those kind of mysteries. You know, with 'Independence Day' - Did she kill him? Was he in the house when she torched it? You don't know and everybody kind of has their own way that they wanna hear the song. In 'Broken Wing' you've got that open window at the end of the song and it's like 'Did she escape out of the open window? Did she jump out of the open window?' Cause you've got the whole broken wing thing goin' on in the song already and... you know, maybe she got out. Maybe the only was she could get out was to kill herself."

George Flanigen ("Independence Day" video co-producer):"The great thing about Martina and her music is that it... they're... all we've worked on have been story songs. And as filmmakers we like to tell stories. So it gives us the opportunity to really stretch out there and get into something dramatic and tell a story. So when we get to work with Martina on a piece like that, it's the best it can be."

Martina has carried story telling through her new CD with "Love's The Only House" and "This Uncivil War." There are also songs that veer off country's beaten path.

Martina: "I can't say that it's a traditional country album. But I've never really made traditional country music. I love it, but it just doesn't seem to be what comes out of me when i go into and create piece of music. So I just try not to analize it too much, you know, I really try to just kind of let whatever is in there and whatever I've taken in over the past couple of years  between albums, kind of just naturally come out. And this is what came out, you know."

Paul Worley: "Her voice is the kind of voice that has mass appeal to more than just the country audience, so it just... here comes a question of what songs does she do. When she had the opportunity to do the song 'Valentine', it just happened to cross over. I mean nobody forced it to, it just... it just did. And thet began what for her was a crossing over audience."

Battle lines have been drawn in the music industry between those who support cross-over and those who don't. With the song "I Love You", both on her new CD Emotion and on the hit soundtrack from Runaway Bride, Martina has been criticized for crossing over to pop.

Martina: "You know I... I... Personally I don't really understand that way of thinking. I mean I know that it's valid. I mean there are people that feel that way and they feel that way for a reason. I don't feel that way. because I was always into the impression that you wanted as many people to hear your music as possible. I didn't really realized that it had to be sort of this group of people over here and... it doesn't really make any sense to me. I make music, I want everybody to hear it, you know. I want the whole world to hear it. I'm proud of it. And I don't wanna have to say 'Oh, you over here, you can't her my music. Just, just particular group of people... Just country fans can hear the music.' I don't understand that way of thinking. And it's a really territorial way of thinking."

Paul Worley: "She's not abandoning anything and all she's doing is embracing her own creativity. And if with embracing her own creativity she becomes larger than anyone former, then so be it. You know, that's a good thing, it just brings more people into country music. Pop is something that comes but she's not asking for. It's not what she set out to do 'I'm gonna have a pop record.' It's always about being the best at country music. 'What can I do to touch people through my country music?'"

Martina: "I've been fortunate enough to be involved in some other projects like the Jim Brickman project with 'Velantine' or the 'Hope Floats' with Bob Seger. I've been able to, you know, to I guess have other people exposed... other audience is exposed to my music without really havin' the concentrate on crossing over. And so I never set out to do that with this album. But I'm aware, you know, it has a different sound, yeah, and I don't really know how that happened."

Brian Mansfield: "It wasn't like she came in and said 'You know, I started country but I'd really like to wind up somewhere else.' She hadn't really done any of that. Other people came and got her and took her to the pop radio with them."

Martina: "(...) country music, I think, is always evolving. It's evolved and when you say ' Well, that's not country'... Well, you know, like what country? Like the country music of the fifties? Is that what you call country? Or the country music of the seventies? Cause the country music of the seventies is nothing like the country music of the fifties, you know. Or the sixties, or the eighties. Pick any decade, it's always been changing and evolving."

Episode 1 *** Episode 2 *** Episode 3 *** Episode 4

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