Trisha Yearwood: ‘The Odds Are Against Me’
Trisha Yearwood says her song 'PrizeFighter' has become a business anthem for her, as well as a personal one. With women in country music struggling to find radio space, and with the changes in the music business since she released her last album seven years ago, the 50-year-old knows better than to pin her expectations on sales or chart numbers.
“I definitely feel like … the odds are against me on so many levels,” Yearwood tells Taste of Country. “Seven years ago, when I made my last record, there were a lot of women on the radio. And I don’t really know what happened."
'PrizeFighter: Hit After Hit' is her first albums since 'Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love' in 2007.
"I feel like Reba McEntire came in and stormed all the doors and opened all the doors, and somehow, in the last 10 years, somebody started closing the doors back," Yearwood says.
Still, she's finding the title track is earning fans. There's momentum building behind the steady, inspiring ballad with Kelly Clarkson.
“That’s encouraging to me in a climate that isn’t about 50-year-old women," Yearwood says, smiling.
Social media and streaming are an important part of releasing an album today, so Yearwood had to play catch up. She says she didn't really realize women were having such a tough time until she began working on this project. Even though she recognizes new artists today have it tougher than she did in the early '90s, the 'She's in Love With the Boy' hitmaker says she'd still give new artists the same advice she relied on: don't give up and stick to your guns.
“It’s tough to stick to your guns,” Yearwood relates. “It’s tough to stick to it when you’ve got a lot of different voices telling you, ‘It’d be better if you sang this, it’d be better if you wore this, it’d be better if you colored your hair this color.’"
“You’ve been wanting to do this since you were five years old, so part of you wants to go ‘OK, I’ll wear whatever you think I should wear,'" she continues, "but somewhere down the line you’ll go, ‘Man, I wish I would have stuck to who I was.’”
As for the struggles of women in country music, Yearwood admits she's hoping for a turnaround, because women need to hear good songs from women.
“I think there’s such a place for women to speak to women,” she shares. “There’s such a place for women to sing songs that make other women feel good about themselves and feel like they can do anything.”
Look for 'PrizeFighter: Hit After Hit' in stores and at GhostTunes.
Trisha Yearwood Shows Her Scars on New Album
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