Terri Clark
Rarely does life have such a satisfying story arc as the one that’s about to culminate for Terri Clark. On Thursday, she is set to play the Ryman for the first time as a headliner — just steps away from Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, where she got her first break into the country music industry.
“I started playing for tips in 1987, 30-some-odd years ago when I was a kid,” Clark tells the Scene. “I would often take my breaks and go over to the Ryman and step inside — and just look around and dream about the day that I might actually be able to do a show there, play that stage, even just as part of the Opry series. To be able to headline an entire 90-minute set there now — it’s surreal.”
She certainly won’t be alone in her celebration. The concert follows the May release of Terri Clark: Take Two, which features reworkings of eight of her most popular songs, each with a special guest. Clark says she got most of her wish list, including Ashley McBryde on her 1995 debut single “Better Things to Do” and Cody Johnson making a duet out of “I Just Wanna Be Mad.” Lainey Wilson joins on “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” and Kelly Clarkson taps in for “If I Were You,” among other artists.
The songs on Take Two showcase Clark’s range and success, but there are a few that didn’t make the cut. “No Fear” appeared on her 2000 album Fearless and remains a set list staple; she counts the song as emblematic of who she is as an artist. She took time away from the country radio circuit to make that record, which saw critical acclaim but less commercial appeal.
“I had felt like I was being pigeonholed a little bit by the tongue-in-cheek, fun, bouncy songs that were sort of indicative of what radio was playing from me at the time,” she says. “I’m really grateful for the bouncy hits. I didn’t want to be just known for that. I wanted to show I was more dimensional.”
Having proved her chops, “Girls Lie Too” — which she shares with Carly Pearce on Take Two — was her path back to sassy-girl country radio. Clark has never been one to balk at recording an anthem for the ladies.
“I’m grateful to have had some really great rocking, up-tempo, female-anthemic type songs to go out there and sing every single night,” says Clark. “And to see people smile and sing along is so gratifying.”
Terri Clark
Growing up in Canada, Clark dreamed of moving to Nashville. She saw Tootsie’s in Coal Miner’s Daughter, read biographies of country favorites including Barbara Mandrell and consumed all of the Nashville country radio that she could.
“When I finally went to Nashville for the first time, it was like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz,” she says. “I just couldn’t believe that this all really existed. All of these things that I had heard about and seen on television were such a big part of my thought process growing up.”
She crossed the border with her mother and mother’s best friend in a Honda Civic and told border control agents they were going to the Grand Ole Opry. Her mom stayed for a week and helped her find a room to rent for cheap in exchange for babysitting for a mother who worked the night shift.
Clark didn’t have a green card when she got her first chance to play on Tootsie’s stage. She went on to land eight singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot Country charts. Among other accolades, her first three albums went platinum, she’s been nominated for multiple CMA Awards, and she has been inducted as a member of the Opry.
It’s a cinematic story that almost didn’t happen. One sweltering late-July afternoon, early in her tenure in Nashville, she got off the bus at the wrong stop, wearing stage clothes and with her guitar in hand. She called her mom — one of many collect calls — and said she wanted to come home.
“She said, ‘You are always welcome to come home, I just want to play devil’s advocate,’” Clark recalls. “‘I don’t want you to be 50 years old and regret not giving it a real shot.’ I can only imagine how hard it was for my mom to actually try to be diplomatic in that moment, because she was worried sick about me.”
Broadway isn’t what it once was, but Clark has a piece of advice that remains consistent for today’s young hopefuls: Surround yourself with people who are better at music than you, and who will tell you the truth.
“Even though it’s not a long way physically [from Tootsie’s to the Ryman], it’s a long way in so many other ways. It’s been a long ride and it’s been a lot of years. And that dream is finally coming true, and it is very sweet.”
