Rimes, Leann

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LEANN RIMES

Born: Jackson, Mississippi, 28 August 1982

Genre: Country

Best-selling album since 1990: Blue (1996)

Hit songs since 1990: "Blue," "One Way Ticket," "How Do I Live"

Following in the footsteps of precocious country singers of the past such as Brenda Lee and Tanya Tucker, LeAnn Rimes achieved stardom at an extremely young age—thirteen. Catapulting to fame with her first single, "Blue" (1996), Rimes exhibited a strong, confident voice, marked by a maturity that belied its years. Instantly earning critical comparisons to late country legend Patsy Cline, Rimes became country music's most promising young star, her career largely shaped and guided by her father, Wilbur. Echoing a pattern that characterized the early career of Lee, however, Rimes's follow-up releases indicated a lack of artistic direction; largely abandoning her country audience, Rimes actively pursued the pop market, choosing material that many critics dismissed as inappropriate. By 2000 Rimes was making efforts to forge her own personal and artistic independence, engaging in prolonged lawsuits with her father and record label. While Rimes's publicized troubles had a delaying effect on her recording career, she resolved these disputes in 2002, releasing a new album that celebrated her adulthood with a clean-edged pop sound.

Childhood Stardom

Spending her early years in Jackson, Mississippi, Rimes won her first talent contest at the age of five, having exhibited an ability to sing on pitch before she could talk. When she was six her father, a salesman of oil-field pipe, and mother, a devout Baptist who worked at a hair salon to help pay bills, moved Rimes to Dallas, Texas, in order to spur her performing career. Setting up a recording studio in the family's small, two-bedroom apartment, Wilbur rehearsed and coached his daughter each night. By the early 1990s Rimes was singing the National Anthem at Texas Rangers baseball games and appearing on the popular television program Star Search. In 1994, having recorded an album in a small New Mexico studio, she met Dallas disc jockey Bill Mack, who decided to help promote her career. Mack presented Rimes with a song, "Blue," that he had originally written years before for Cline, whose death in a plane crash had prevented her from recording it. The next year, Mack arranged for Rimes to sign with Curb Records, a label known for its tough, shrewd business practices. In a move that would later come back to haunt Rimes, Curb had a court remove the "disability of minority" provision in her contract, ensuring that she would be prevented from backing out of the agreement once she turned eighteen.

Blue, Rimes's debut for Curb, was a resounding hit, selling 7 million copies and winning her a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. A solid, professional sounding country album, Blue is highlighted by Mack's hit title track, in which Rimes recalls Cline's spirited style through expressive, yodeling vocals. Like Lee and Tucker before her, Rimes exhibits an uncanny maturity, belting with the strength and power of an adult. Equally impressive is the full-bodied tone of Rimes's voice, which displays richness and warmth, particularly in its lower register. Proving her facility with a range of country styles, Rimes handles the up-tempo rhythm of the hit, "One Way Ticket," with ease, and duets with country legend Eddy Arnold on "Cattle Call." The song, pairing country's oldest, most venerable performer with its youngest, qualifies as one of Blue 's most charming, satisfying moments. Eager to capitalize on the album's success, Curb quickly unearthed Rimes's 1994 demo album and repackaged it as Unchained Melody: The Early Years (1997). During these years Rimes worked to the point of exhaustion, making almost 500 live appearances between 1996 and 1998.

Prepared to conquer the lucrative pop market, Rimes recorded "How Do I Live," a ballad by hit songwriter Dianne Warren, for the soundtrack to the film Con Air (1997). Although it was rejected by the film's producers in favor of a version by country star Trisha Yearwood, Rimes's recording became a pop crossover smash, remaining on the Billboard charts for a record-breaking sixty-nine weeks. Having reached the peak of her fame, Rimes included the song on her next album, You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs (1997). This time, critics were less kind to Rimes, claiming that her voice was wasted on covers of slick pop songs such as the title track, best known from the hit 1977 recording by pop singer Debby Boone. A perplexing selection of material also informed Rimes's next album, Sittin' on Top of the World (1998). Sporting the now-standard production credit of Wilbur C. Rimes, the album contains an awkward cover of "Purple Rain," the 1984 hit by R&B innovator Prince. Rimes returned to her earlier country sound for LeAnn Rimes (1999), although the album features only one original song, the spirited hit "Big Deal." By this point, critics were pointing to both Wilbur Rimes and Curb Records as forces likely inhibiting Rimes from reaching her full artistic potential.

Personal Conflict and Legal Battles

In May 2000, prompted by questions from her new boyfriend, television actor Andrew Keegan, Rimes and her mother (now divorced from her father) arranged for accountants to investigate Wilbur Rimes's business finances. Discovering that her father had assigned himself a 31 percent producer's fee, a 30 percent management fee, and a 10 percent guardian fee, Rimes and her mother sued, claiming that her father's company had usurped at least $7 million over the course of five years. At the same time, Rimes sued Curb Records in an attempt to break free of her onerous 1996 contract, which, due to the removal of the disability of minority provision, committed her to twenty-one albums instead of the industry standard of seven. During the acrimonious proceedings that ensued, the public was treated to dramatic allegations of adultery, theft, alcoholism, and promiscuity. Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Rimes denounced her latest album on Curb, I Need You (2001), encouraging audiences not to buy it. At one point during the trial proceedings with Curb, she turned to her father and mouthed, "I hate you." In 2002, after nearly two years of bad press, Rimes, now living in Los Angeles, settled with her father out of court. In a sign of improving relations, Wilbur attended her wedding that year to dancer Dean Sheremet.

Losing her suit against Curb Records, Rimes released Twisted Angel (2002), a pop album that presents her as a full-grown, independent woman. Writing much of the album's material, Rimes includes lines on "Suddenly" that celebrate her new adulthood: "It's Independence Day, I'm free / And it's a strange place to be." The barbed lyrics of "Life Goes On" seem directed at her father, ex-boyfriend Keegan, and others who lost her trust: "You sucked me in then played my mind / Just like a toy you would crank and wind." Her powerful voice undiminished, Rimes brings a new bite to these songs, performing them with a liberated sense of vigor. While making note of the album's arresting lyrics, however, reviewers criticized its pop sound as bland and overly produced. In its review, rock magazine Rolling Stone expressed a longing for the Rimes country sound of the past: "Let's hope Nashville will take her back, and quick."

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Blue (Curb, 1996); Unchained Melody: The Early Years (Curb, 1997); You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs (Curb, 1997); Sittin' on Top of the World (Curb, 1998); LeAnn Rimes (Curb, 1999); I Need You (Curb, 2001); Twisted Angel (Curb, 2002).