Tanya Tucker Channels #SaveOurStages With Upcoming Album ‘Live From The Troubadour’

Derrek Kupish – Tanya Tucker

While Tanya Tucker tore the ground open with the scorching rock/country album TNT, the four years she lived in LA as the ‘70s became the ‘80s never saw the Lolita-leaning country star grace the Troubadour for any reason. Laughing now, she says, “We did a lot of things back then, and the party didn’t start ‘til I got there – and it was over when I left. But, no, I never went to the Troubadour, even though I knew all about it.”

On Oct. 16, with the release of Live From the Troubadour, she will be forever linked with the iconic West Hollywood venue. A portion of proceeds from the 15-song package, released on Fantasy records, will benefit the venue and National Independent Venue Association’s Save Our Stages fund. Tucker has also created an exclusive poster – available on her website – with all net proceeds donated to the Troubadour.

When the COVID-19 work stoppage hit the concert business, the 2020 double Grammy winner for While I’m Livin’ and “Bring My Flowers Now” and 1991 Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year wanted to help. Not sure how a woman more infamous than arena-sized could make a difference, it dawned on the “Delta Dawn” songstress: take one of the live shows from her victory lap and team with Fantasy to benefit those struggling venues in the live realm.

Identifying with the Save Our Stages initiative, created by the National Independent Venues Association in the wake of the pandemic shutdown, Tucker dug into last year’s show tapes — and emerged with Live from the Troubadour. Recorded Oct. 16 on the tour supporting her Brandi Carlile/Shooter Jennings-produced album, the career-spanning live recording measures her earliest hits, rock detour, Nashville ‘80s resurgence and the songs that ignited the most dazzling return to prominence since Loretta Lynn’s Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose.

“I have had always had great audiences,” she said of the last year. “But While I’m Livin’ – after 50 years in this business – took me places I’d never been, playing for new people who came and loved the music. That’s what I’m in this for, what I crave to do is seek out new people who love my music.”

Her comment reinforces her statement given on the official press release, “There are so many people and places hurting right now, and for me, being on the road since I was a kid and knowing these legendary venues like the Troubadour aren’t bringing in a dime right now without performances, it just makes sense to give back. I can’t be with the fans, so this is my love letter to them, a live album with some of those old records, and our new songs from While I’m Livin’.”

Derrek Kupish – Tanya Tucker

With liner notes fashioned from Variety’s Chris Willman’s “Tanya Tucker Brings Sensitivity and Classic Swagger To the Troubadour” review, country music’s most unbridled female star delivers a masterclass in old school country showmanship. Beyond the hits, there’s also a fascinating merging of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” with Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

“It was never my intention to make a live record,” she concedes. “If it had been, we’d’ve done it as a proper record; we’d’ve had a truck come in like Brian Ahearn always did with Emmylou’s records. So what this is is what we do every show; different songs come in and out, but this is the way my shows go.

“Looking back on (the night), I felt very honored by the audience. I’m always honored, but they were very respectful. It reminds me of a time when I was in New York at the Bottomline. I was 15. Billy Sherrill was there, and all the cats who’d recorded with me. New York opened their arms to me, and that’s how the Troubadour felt, too.”

To honor the Troubadour in particular, Tucker enlisted Nashville’s historic Hatch Show Prints to create a limited edition “Live From The Troubadour” poster. Fashioned via the same letter press “technology” employed for 140 years for revival meeting handbills, Hank Williams, Sr., Duke Ellington, Bill Monroe, Bessie Smith, stock car races, carnivals and the Grand Ole Opry, the net proceeds will be donated to the Troubadour for help with their COVID deficit.

“The Troubadour is one those places, like the Ryman is in Nashville, that’s just such a part of Los Angeles. It’s not just history, it represents the vibe and feel of the place, the values. So for me, this was a good way to give back to them.”