Pop musing: Deana Carter clouded by wait for album release
Jon Bream / Star Tribune

At 9:30 this morning, Deana Carter will step to a podium in the Grand Ole Opry atrium and announce the nominees for next month's Country Music Association Awards.

Although she's one of the fastest rising females in country music, Carter isn't sure why she was chosen to read the nominations. It could be because last year she received the most nominations (five). Or because she had the most enthusiastic reaction of any CMA winner ever. When Ricky Skaggs announced Carter's win for best single ("Strawberry Wine"), she bounded onstage barefoot and hugged presenter Skaggs -- with her arms and her legs.

Her enthusiam was genuine, Carter said last week: "Do you think I would act that moronic on my own?

"I was just excited; that's something you can't really act out. I'm
not a very good actress, anyway. I'm sure that will make the video [highlights] somewhere."

Although she tries to keep a sunny disposition, Carter, 32, doesn't smile when asked about when her next album will be  released.

  "It's the battle of the label world. I know they have different albums on their agenda," she said last week before going to a  meeting at Capitol Records in Hollywood. "I'm like gangbusters to get it out."

Usually an artist coming off a debut that sold 4 million copies --
a remarkable achievement in country music -- would be a top
priority for her record label. But Capitol Nashville also has a
5,000-pound gorilla, Garth Brooks, with an album on the way.

Is his stuff getting in the way?

"You could probably say that," she said. "I don't know if it's                   him specifically, but the agenda there is pretty one-sided."

Coincidentally, Tanya Tucker filed a lawsuit against Capitol
 July 24, contending that the label has neglected her career and
 devoted "its efforts to another artist," unnamed but presumed to
be Brooks. The megastar was reportedly involved in helping to
select the current head of Capitol Nashville two years ago.

When Carter performed with Alan Jackson this past April at
Target Center in Minneapolis, she said the album would be out
in the summer. It was recently scheduled to be released Sept.
 22, but the singer-songwriter rejected that because Capitol
hadn't mapped out a marketing campaign to her satisfaction.

She's a tough cookie. When Capitol proposed including "What
Makes You Stay," which Carter recorded for the soundtrack
 to the Sandra Bullock movie "Hope Floats," she rejected the
 idea. Since Capitol put out the soundtrack, she said, she felt it
 would be a conflict of interest to have the song on two different
 Capitol albums.

Carter is not your stereotypical country singer. Although she  grew up in Nashville, she listened to radio stations that played Willie Nelson and Steely Dan back to back. As far as her influences, she said if a pie represented her taste, only one of  the 12 slices would be country. To underscore her point, she said her most recent music purchases were CDs by alt-rocker Björk, Celtic harpist-singer Loreena McKennitt and         blues-rocker Bonnie Raitt.

While Carter waits to find out when her album will be released,
she has been on tour -- headlining some concerts, opening
 others for Jackson -- singing songs from her forthcoming
 album, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" (the title track was
 written by her father, veteran studio guitarist Fred Carter).

  She's also singing her hits, including the rite-of-passage
 "Strawberry Wine" and the drinking anthem "Did I Shave My
  Legs for This?"

 Why is she popular?

"I  try to be real," she said. "In our world today to get on a                 soapbox -- even if if you don't want to hear it -- if it's the truth or it's honestly their opinion, then you've got to walk away appreciating it. I'm not saying be rude, ever. But you should  always be encouraged to be truthful and let your spirit shine through instead of being hindered or bonked on the head until  you're a robot."



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