Tucker doesn’t miss a beat in Orleans show

Joe Delaney

Friday, Dec. 14, 2001 | 9:01 a.m.

Tanya Tucker was an early starter and has lived several lifetimes for someone not yet 44. She has come a long way since I first reviewed her at the start of the 1970s, when she was a featured act in the then-very popular Judy Lynn show in the Flamingo lounge. She is a marvelous sum total as a performer these nights at The Orleans, in the showroom through Saturday.

Backed by a six-piece band, Tucker was dressed in black, looking marvelous and, as always, warm, giving and enjoying herself onstage, a feeling quickly communicated to the entire audience and just as quickly reciprocated. The show started on time at 10 p.m., which was perhaps 15 minutes or so early for the rodeo crowd, some of whom came late.

"Some Kind of Trouble" got things off to a flying start, a tempo retained for "I'll Come Back as Another Woman." She introduced the song "That It Won't Be Me." "Look What It Did to Me" and "Our Love Will Last Forever" led to some chat about her 30 albums to date, "compared to Johnny Cash's 175."

A seated acoustic set covered the period 1972-1975, her Columbia (now Sony) years, which included "Jamestown Ferry," "What's Your Mama's Name, Child," "(The Georgia Sun Was) Blood Red" and "Would You Lay Down with Me in a Field of Stone," written for her brother's wedding but considered too sexy as sung by Tucker, still a teenager then.

Her talk was easy, informal, informative and fun. "San Antonio Stroll," "Hanging in, Hanging out and Hanging on," "In the Spring," "Rain Man," followed by a respite to acknowledge Loretta Lynn and the late Tammy Wynette as strong influences, which led to Wynette's "Your Good Girl Is Gonna Go Bad." "Walking Shoes" was a strong tempo pickup.

Tucker's mother and dad will soon be married 60 years. "Like Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" was written by Tucker for their 50th anniversary. It netted the strongest applause of the night. "It's a Little Too Late" got the room rocking once more and set up the signature-song closer, "Delta Dawn," her first record and first No. 1 hit at age 14, nearly three decades ago.

We guarantee you a good time, and no matter what your musical preference is going in, that you will really enjoy Tucker.