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Chely Wright
single white female

At a holiday family reunion, a doting relative was tape recording all the little kiddies in the room. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" she asked each one. Little brother said he wanted to be a fireman. Big sister said she wanted to be a nurse.
"I grabbed the microphone and started signing 'Hey Loretta," recalls Chely Wright. "I said, 'I'm gonna be a country star!' That was Christmas of '73, so that would make me just barely three years old."

As long as she can remember, Chely Wright has been living, breathing , eating and sleeping country music. Truly an entire lifetime of professional and personal experience has been poured into the creation of Single White Female, the album that fulfills her destiny.

"I don't have any memories that don't include lying under the coffee table listening to the grown-ups playing the guitar, or sitting in my great-grandmother's lap while she played honky-tonk piano."

All the Wrights played and sang country music. By age 11 Chely Wright was singing it professionally in her Kansas City hometown. In her teens she formed her own County Line band. As a junior in high school she performed at the Ozark Jubilee in Missouri.
At age 18 she earned cast membership in the "Country Music U.S.A." show at the Opryland theme park in Nashville. A natural comic and a gifted mimic, Chely portrayed Loretta Lynn, Jean Shepard and her other classic-country heroes. Her specialty was the role of Minnie Pearl. She even posed for the minnie Pearl bronze statue that is on display in the lobby of the fabled Ryman Auditorium in Music City.

"I really can't imagine my life without having this dream of country music. I am a student of it. I know exactly what the Grand Ole Opry means and I truly do revere it."

Armed with her arsenal of country-music knowledge, Chely began recording in 1994. Early singles were novelties aimed at the then-emerging country dance club market. "Hey, ya gotta start someplace," she says with a shrug.

She earned the industry's respect with a 1995 Academy of Country Music win as Top New Female Vocalist and her powerhouse performance of "The Love That We as Top New Female Vocalist and her powerhouse performance of "The Love That We Lost" in 1996. But her recording career was lost in a shuffle of corporate reorganizations until Tony Brown signed her to MCA Nashville in 1997. He later told Chely that "The Love That We Lost" was the record that spurred his interest in working with her. She immediately rewarded his faith by turning in "Shut Up And Drive." In late 1997 it became her first top-10 hit and the centerpiece for her debut MCA collection, Let Me In.

On the strength of her performances, Chely Wright earned a slot on the 1998 Vince Gill tour as his opening act, as well as being chosen as the only female artist chosen for the 1999 Crown Royal Tour. Chely is widely admired for her wisdom about country music's traditions, her off-center sense of humor and her tireless capacity for entertaining.

"This is going to sound cheesy, but almost daily I break into a smile. I love my health; I love my lifestyle; I love life; and I love this, music."

"I'm proud of my earlier records, but when I put them on, somehow the singing doesn't sound like 'me.' It's much thinner. The band says my voice is Setting better and richer. I know my range has increased. Some of the improvement on the records probably has to do with learning about the studio, learning about microphones.

"But I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I was a girl singing back then and I'm a woman singing now. Life's experiences make you sing from a different place. I am emotionally connected with these songs."

"This is the most honest record I've ever made," says Chely. "I have lived these songs."

"In the past, maybe I've tried to avoid talking about my personal life because I thought it didn't have that much to do with the music. Now I know that the music you make is directly connected with your life experiences. I used to turn songs away that were too close to home. Not this time. These songs really represent who I am right now."

The rhythmic title tune is a direct examination of Chely's ongoing search for lasting romance. She wrote "Some Kind Of Somethin" after talking with a girlfriend about a guy she was dating. The rocking "The Fire" and the pulsing "It Was" both reflect the turbulent emotions she has had in relationships.

She wrote "Picket Fences" when feeling the ache of her parents' divorce and sings "She Went Out For Cigarettes: to evoke a similar situation. "Rubbin' It In" is a meditation from the losing side of love. Songwriters Gary Burr and Aimee Mayo deliberately inserted details about Chely Wright's personality into the tender lyrics of "Unknown."

The textures of these and the other songs on Single White Female are enriched by a stellar supporting cast. Chely is one of the best-liked people on the contemporary country scene, and the affection that Music Row has for her shows in every note of her album. Trisha Yearwood is her harmony partner on "Single White Female." Patty Loveless joins her on "Why Do I Still Want You." Alison Krauss Helps give "Picket Fences" extra poignancy. Sonya Isaacs sings on A "She Went Out For Cigarettes." Vince Gill sings harmony on "It Was" and plays guitar on "The Love That We Lost."

"I don't know what I've lived 'The Love That We Lost,' but I've been singing it so long that it has become a part of me," she comments. The throbbing ballad has special meaning for Chely because it is the song that led to her MCA Records contract. Actually, everything led to that contract.

Single White Female is the album that Chely Wright was born to make. It is the record that tells you who she is. It is the record that announces her emergence as a major player on the contemporary country scene. It is the record that makes a little girl's wish come true, the record of a star.

Everything that Chely Wright has ever done has been pointing toward this moment.

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