Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 59

Section Page Nine Tucson, Friday, April 13, 1990 J)r Arizona Bailn Siar Stakmso Jann Browne's dreams are coming true Preview What: Jann Browne in concert, with Mistaken Identity opening. When: Thursday, 8 p.m. Where: Coyote's, 144 W. Lester St. Admission: $5, available at the bar, Dillard's, Workshop Music and Sound and Cooper's Western Wear at El Con Mall.

Information: 624-31 16. J' 1 '''7 i 'i j-" I '4. -V: Browne is up for an award from the Academy of Country Music By Pam Parrish The Arizona Daily Star Jann Browne is about to be eaten by the shark from "Jaws." She's looking forward to it. "I'm real excited about this," says the up-and-coming country singer, preparing to tape a peformance at Disney World that will air on the Academy of Country Music awards show April 25. "I get to be in the 'Jaws' area.

I think I get eaten at the end." She laughs. "Stranger things have happened to me, I guess." Nicer things, certainly, including her nomination by the West Coast-based ACM for best new female artist of the year; having two of her idols, Emmylou Harris and Wanda Jackson, sing on her new album; and getting rave reviews in People magazine, no less for her debut album, "Tell Me Why." After 13 years of performing, including two on the road with those rowdy boys in Asleep at the Wheel, the Anderson, native is "surprised and thrilled to death" at the acclaim. Family tradition makes it even sweeter. Browne's grandparents were professional square dancers with the Kentucky Briarhoppers and performed on the Grand Ole Opry stage, and her mother "always had Buck Owens or Merle Haggard on the stereo somewhere in the house." "Of course, I also listened to the Beatles and Motown and other things, but in my bedroom, behind my piano, I would sing a lot of Tammy Wynette," Browne says. Browne decided to try a singing career after graduating from high school, and put together an "eclectic" band.

It wasn't until a friend brought over a copy of Harris' 1976 album "Elite Hotel" that she decided to dedicate her voice to country music. "I had been listening to Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles, but when Emmy came along, it was kind of a magical thing for me," Browne says. Joining her mom in California in 1977, Browne became a popular fixture on the club circuit. She stepped into the Asleep at the Wheel lineup in 1981, the day after singer Chris O'Connell left the band. "I opened for them at the Palomino Club, and they asked me to sing with them," she recalls.

"The next day I was on a plane for Sacramento to join the band. I'd been a fan for years, so it was a pretty easy decision." Not so easy to live with, however, as the band spent a grueling 300 days a year on the road. "It was blackout time," Browne says, laughing. "I don't remember a thing. It was fun, but at the same time tedious." Having along her husband-to-be, Roger Stebner, helped, she says, and she learned a lot about performing on stage from Wheel leader Ray Benson.

Rose" to the straight-out honky-tonk of "Louisville" and the Harlan HowardFuzzy Owen classic "The One You Slip Around With." "Lovebird," with backing by New Grass Revival, recalls Harris' "Roses in the Snow" in its updated bluegrass sound. "I wanted to portray that I am a country singer not afraid to use steel guitar, mandolin and fiddle," Browne says. Browne and rockabilly legend Jackson decided to record together not long after meeting at a California country-music festival. They independently came up with the same idea for a duet: "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know," another classic. "That's something my family used to sit around and sing," Browne says.

"I never mentioned it, but then she suggested it, and I thought we'd better do it. "I hope this will introduce her to people who haven't heard her in a long time." Browne realized another dream in October when she got to sing for the Porter Wagoner TV show on the Grand Ole Opry stage. "I'll never forget the first time I walked out there," she says. "I was trying to capture everything I could what it was like to stand at the microphone, looking out at the crowd." Since then, she's performed twice on the Opry's radio show. "I've been through Nashville so many times getting to some other place," Browne says.

"But I never stopped. Maybe I wasn't secure enough." She recently performed at Farm Aid IV in Indiana, and with Stebner spent an afternoon visiting patients in a children's clinic where her handicapped cousin, to whom "Tell Me Why" is dedicated, was recovering from surgery. "I want to volunteer my time for more of that," she says. "I think I have had all my dreams come true," Browne says softly. "I'm a big dreamer, though.

There's still a lot of people I admire and would like to sing with. I want to keep making good traditional country music. "It almost disappeared for a while. I want to make sure it stays alive." Browne left the band in 1983 to return to California and concentrate on songwriting, again doing the rounds in West Coast clubs. Her performance of "Louisville," co-written with Pat Gallagher, was featured on the compilation album "A Town South of Bakersfield II" and in the film "Powwow Highway." She gained the attention of many fellow musicians, including Steve Fishell of Harris' Hot Band.

Fishell performed with her in the honky-tonks and helped her make demos and snag a recording contract with Curb Records. He also produced "Tell Me Why," which features the talents of guitarists Albert Lee and James Burton, John Jorgenson and Bill Bryson of the Desert Rose Band, and New Grass Revival, as well as Harris and Jackson. She met Harris when fellow honky-tonker Rosie Flores (of Screaming Sirens fame) invited them to sing backup on her solo album. Browne later opened a show for Harris at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. After Harris heard her sing her composition "Mexican Wind," she sought out Browne in her dressing room and volunteered to supply harmonies, if Browne ever put it on record.

"After I picked myself up off the floor, we went in and did it," Browne says. The richly romantic waltz will be her next single, following up "You're Not Down Home" and "Tell Me Why," both of which moved into the Top 20 on the country charts. "After she's a big success, writers are going to write songs for her and for her voice," Harris has predicted. "Tell Mc Why" is a beautiful album that compares with Harris' best works. Browne moves confidently from sweet, tender songs like a Tear Becomes a.