UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 4
September 26, 1996
Two top country stars to perform in BCC Nov. 15

     Award-wining country star Tim McGraw will bring his 1996
Spontaneous Combustion Tour to the University on Friday,  Nov.
15, when an 8 p.m. concert is scheduled at the Bob Carpenter
Center. Opening the show will be Warner Brothers recording star
Faith Hill. The national tour is sponsored by Country Music
Television.
     Tickets for the Spontaneous Combustion concert go on sale
Friday, Sept. 27, at all UD box offices, Ticketmaster locations
and by phone from Ticketmaster at 984-2000 or (215) 336-2000.
Bleacher seats cost $24.50 and chair-back seats are $27.50. A
convenience charge may apply. For more information, call UD1-HENS.
     The tour follows the September 1995 release of McGraw's
latest album, All I Want, containing the biggest single of his
career, "I Like It, I Love It," which topped Billboard's country
music chart for five consecutive weeks. The second single, "Can't
Be Really Gone," also climbed to the top chart position only
eight weeks after its release. McGraw's next single, "All I Want
Is A Life," hit the top 10, followed by the June release of "She
Never Lets It Go To Her Heart," which went to number one in
August.
     Additionally, McGraw's 1994 album, Not A Moment Too Soon,
remains a major force on Billboard's country music album chart
almost two years after its release. The collection sold 5 million
units and had five top-five singles.
     McGraw took the 1995 Academy of Country Music Awards by
storm, winning Album of the Year and Top New Male Vocalist
honors. He's also won accolades from the American Music Awards,
Country Radio Awards, Country Music Television Awards, TNN/Music
City News Awards, Billboard Awards and Blockbuster Entertainment
Awards.
     Always an optimist, McGraw says his success has been a
"surprise," but adds, "I can't say the pressure hit me all that
hard. When you prepare yourself, it's just like playing baseball
or football or anything else. You always visualize yourself
making a great play. You do it enough times in your head so that
when that play actually happens, you've had a little bit of
experience with it. I think that anybody who's in the music
business for the long haul-who knows that it's what they want to
do-is constantly focusing on the good things that are going to
happen in the future."
     A native of Start, La., McGraw did little more than dabble
in music during his early and teen years. After graduating from
high school with honors, he enrolled at Northeast Louisiana
University to study law.
     "Then, I got my grades back the first semester," he
recounts, " and I knew that wasn't going to work."
     From pre-law he switched to sports medicine, but his love of
music gradually began to eclipse his commitment to academics, and
he left college after his third year. In 1989, he moved to
Nashville, where he did the usual club-singing apprenticeship.
Two years after his arrival, Curb Records signed him.
     Faith Hill had her first success with the album Take Me As I
Am, which came out in the fall of 1993. The album was a platinum
success with three number-one singles.
     That album and her newest album, It Matters to Me, showcase
Hill's philosophy: "Country music is about communication," she
says. "It's about truth telling and lack of pretense, about
'telling it like it is' and creating committed dialog with fans."
     It Matters To Me opens with the assertive fanfare of
"Someone Else's Dream" and closes with the gospel hit, "Keep
Walkin' On." The album has been called a significant step in the
evolution of a major artist with something to say.
                                                -Beth Thomas