What Rimes with LeAnn? — Popular singer plays Garde Friday

May 18, 2023 5:00 pm • Last Updated: May 18, 2023 9:20 am

By Rick Koster
Day Arts/Features writer

LeAnn Rimes (credit Darrell Brown)

The odds against someone having a successful career in entertainment are intimidatingly long, but maybe not as outrageous as the idea of an artist thriving for 25 years — even though she only recently turned 40.

That’s some weird math.

Nonetheless, that’s the reality for the terrifically talented vocal stylist LeAnn Rimes. As most folks in the universe know, Rimes, who grew up in Texas, became a star at 13 with a powerful and emotive cover of honky tonk singer Patsy Cline’s “Blue.” Subsequently, Rimes explored not just the possibilities of country music but pop and contemporary Christian as well. In 2020, she even released a wellness album “CHANT: The Human and The Holy,” which thematically augments her “Wholly Human” iHeartRadio podcast.

On Friday, Rimes performs in New London’s Garde Arts Center on the latest stop of her “The Story … So Far” tour. Fans can expect hits from across her 18-album career including “Blue,” “How Do I Live,” “Can’t Fight the Moonlight” and “Life Goes On.” Too, last year, Rimes released the “God’s Work” album, so there should be new tunes from that recording to enjoy.

Opening the show will be local hero Braiden Sunshine, the Old Lyme vocalist who reached international fame with his long run as a semi-finalist in the 2015 season of “American Idol.”

All told, Rimes has sold 48 million units, won two Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, three Academy of Country Music Awards and two Country Music Association Awards. In addition to music, she’s a successful author, a veteran of television and film projects, and a committed social activist for a variety of causes.

Last December, Rimes had to cancel most of a holiday tour to deal with vocal cord problems caused by violent coughing during a flu outbreak. Rimes has healed and should be at full strength at the Garde show. Taking all precautions, though, she requested an interview last week be conducted by email. Here’s the e-conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Q: When you recorded "Blue," how familiar were you with Patsy Cline and "classic country" or "honky tonk"?

A: When I first heard Patsy Cline playing in our home, it wasn’t that it was country music that drew me to her. It was where she was singing from — her whole soul and gut crying out. I wouldn’t have had the words to answer that question when I was 13 or 14, but I knew it wasn’t a style of music that I heard from her. It was more like I was listening to my own heart singing back to me.

Q: In 2018, on an EP called “Reimagined,” you recorded fresh arrangements of several hits. How do you decide which version of any of them to perform live now? Do you find, well, "I actually prefer the original 'Blue’ arrangement but I'd rather do the new rendition of ‘Can't Fight the Moonlight’?“

A: I’ve been blessed to be in this music world for so long. Sometimes, when I play around with a new arrangement for one of my older songs, I discover something new to share. For instance, in the new way I sing “One Way Ticket,” I can hear a deeper meaning to the lyrics. Instead of pumping triumphant arms in the air, I find a grounded reassurance to its message that “someone will fall in love again … because they can.”

Instead of it being an affirmation of the future it feels like a confirmation of the present moment. Great songs have so many levels to them. I believe it’s my job to discover all their dimensions and share in my discoveries.

Q: Talk about the therapeutic qualities of art — writing/singing/performing — versus the pressures of stardom and the necessary obligations that go hand-in-hand with being a successful artist. It almost seems like the purity or release that art might provide is in many ways required because of the very nature of your job.

A: We are creative beings and I believe that when we create in some form or fashion, we are more whole. We’re able to find an outlet for our vast emotional landscape and alchemize our more challenging experiences. What we create doesn’t have to be great, but through the process of creation, we find our center. The next time you are feeling wrung out on the world, draw, dance, quilt, plant something, cook, sing … just create! I know it works. It brings me back to Me.

Q: Speaking of art as therapy, your “Chants — The Human and the Holy” is refreshing and healing in the same theoretical way as Gregorian chants, Robert Fripp/Brian Eno ambient albums and Mahalia Jackson gospel — but in a way totally distinctive to you and your talents. What came first, the idea of "Chants" as a full-length album for which you then wrote the music, or the other way around?

A: I was meditating and started singing quietly to myself as a reassurance to my own heart, and it struck me to record it on my phone. Listening back later, and because they were greatly helping me, I felt inspired to share these meditation pieces with others. From there, the record was born.

Q: For better or worse, the demands and opportunities of celebrity give artists the means to explore other disciplines beyond the one that made them "famous." You've written books, been in films and starred in a television series. Is it hard to balance the eagerness or curiosity to try a new project against the realities of being able to do so with the commitment and energy required to do it the way you'd like?

A: I have been gifted with so many incredible experiences, recording and touring, writing and acting and you are so right: every choice is a commitment of time, energy and a piece of my being. The best thing I started doing in the last decade was giving myself time to be with myself and those I love. So, when I choose to do a project now, whatever form that project may take, I want it to feed my soul in return, just as much as I am pouring out into it — or there’s no real reason to do anything at this point in my life. I believe that balance is incredibly important.

Q: How has LeAnn Rime's backstage hospitality rider changed from your late teens to now?

A: M&M’s and Cheez-Its used to be my thing. Now, it’s Gaviscon, Fiji water and nut butter. Boy, have times changed! I’m pretty simple, honestly. I don’t ask for much.

Q: The structure of the music industry has changed massively. What are your thoughts on the homogeneity of music, with styles overlapping liberally? At the same time, the structural blueprints of country and pop songwriting and production seem to have been formulaically dumbed-down to unprecedented levels. Without trying to coerce you into saying something provocative, you’ve nonetheless been a prominent, real-time artist for almost three decades. Any thoughts on how this has all changed?

A: Music, film, TV, plays, books … No matter what is being created, I believe, there are those who wander out into the wilderness to discover new things; those who copied what others have (done); and those who rebel against the world they’re in. I’ve created from all of those places in my life, and I’ve had success in each of them.

But the truth is, nothing has changed since the music business began. It’s just that, instead of 500 records coming out a week, we have 60,000 records coming out each day. We are saturated with information. I do think we’ve lost some of the magic and I wish there was more music with a heartbeat and an authentic point of view. But that’s hard to find these days.