Crystal Gayle - Country/Pop Icon.
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
Crystal tells us a little bit about her musical style, why she likes standards and why she's not cut her hair yet!
DM) You're current album is a bit of a change from your country music past.
CG) Yes, it's full of standards. I did an album a few years back called, "Sings the Heart & Soul of Hoagy Carmichael" and I just loved it. I always loved those standards and it was so hard to narrow down which of these songs to do. There are so many that I loved. I worked closely with the music director, Charles Cochran and we went through some of our favorites and came up with these.
DM) You've sung country in the past, but your last few albums have been off the country path. What type of singer are you at heart?
CG) I'm a ballads singer at heart. I always grew up on ballads and I think it makes up my style. Even songs like, "Don't it Make your Brown Eyes Blue", I think of it as a bit of a ballad.
In the past I would sometimes get criticism every time I went away from country a little bit, but now with so many people doing cross over work I sometimes think I'm more country than a lot of singers from today.
DM) When you describe your musical style a part of me thinks of the scene in the Blues Brothers movie where they play the country bar and the crowd starts throwing beer bottles.
CG) Oh, you have to play to the crowd. Like if I'm playing a place like Feinsteins in New York, I'll play mostly standards, but then again everybody always wants to hear, "Don't it Make your Brown Eyes Blue". If I was playing a bar like in the Blues Brothers Movie I would certainly steer towards the crowd and play more country.
DM) Another tangent that I wanted to ask you about was your store. What made you decide to open a store in Nashville [Crystal's For Fine Gifts & Jewelry, Inc.]?
CG) We sell mostly gifts. I started it because I could never find Crystal in Nashville, and I love it as gifts. I don't manage the day-to-day operations but do stop by the store on occasion.
DM) You mean your fans might find you ringing up their receipt?
CG) I wouldn't do that. I could never get the hang of those machines, but you might occasionally find me wrapping an order.
DM) Don't your fans get a little shocked?
CG) Oh, I love the reaction. They find me wrapping things and have such a look. I just love helping out though.
DM) I must ask the standard questions about the hair. Why did you start it and why not cut it?
CG) My mother started me on that. I always wanted to have long hair that I could put in a ponytail, but she was working as a nurse and always busy so it was just easier to keep it short. When I started singing, my sister Loretta [Lynne] would always tell me to cut it and style it, but I couldn't afford a hair stylist, so I thought, "I could just do this myself."
My kids always tell me not to cut it now because it's who I am. I wouldn't be Crystal Gayle without it. I guess it's like a child to me, I've had it so long, it would be hard to get rid of it.
DM) How is your relationship with your sister Loretta? Do you still get along like little sisters?
CG) She is 19 years older than me, but we're very close given the difference in ages. The press always talked about some negativity and problems between us, but we never had that. We were always close. She was always more like an older sister than a guardian.
DM) Your father died at a young age. Do you still feel the effects?
CG) It's something that you never quite get over. It's always with you. You always think about it. I was only eight at the time. I remember my sister had a dream of me wringing my hands and the next morning he died. I always had a nervous habit of wringing my hands and we took the dream as one of those Kentucky premonitions of things to be.
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