By Jim Dyar, D.A.T.E. Editor
July 8, 2004

Reba McEntire has sung so many hits over the past three decades, even she can't remember the words to them all.

So she types them onto her laptop computer and rehearses them in her head a few times before she takes the stage.

"I can remember a Merle Haggard song from start to finish better than I can a song I recorded on this (last) album," McEntire said Tuesday by phone from Nashville.

When told that her Friday concert (7:30 p.m. at the Redding Rodeo Grounds) would be in Haggard's back yard, McEntire, 49, recalled fond memories of the Shasta County icon's influence on her singing.

"I got in trouble when I was in seventh grade singing 'The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp' to my best friend's grandma," said McEntire in her unmistakable Oklahoma drawl. "It wasn't the kind of song a seventh-grader should have been singing in the first place, but I was trying to sing fancy so I was just lovin' those kinds of songs. Right now I'm reading his autobiography. He's wonderful."

Like Haggard, McEntire's status as a country superstar is well established.

Her single "Somebody" off the album "Room to Breathe" is currently sitting at No. 9 on Billboard's country chart. It's the 53rd time she's visited the top 10.

Between 1985 and 1992, McEntire scored 24 straight Top 10 hits, including 14 No. 1 singles. She's sold more than 48 million albums in her career and has been the primary influence of stars like Faith Hill, Martina McBride and Trisha Yearwood.

In fact, everything the famous redhead touches tends to turn to gold.

Prior to 2001, she'd never performed in a play. Yet she took the title role for "Annie Get Your Gun" on Broadway and received rave reviews for her performance.

"People asked me, 'Weren't you scared doing a Broadway play?' " McEntire remembered. "I said, 'I never thought of it.' It would have been intimidating if I would've thought about it. But I didn't go into 'Annie Get Your Gun' by trying to impress anybody. I just wanted to be Annie Oakley."

Reba debuted a television series that same year on the WB, and three years later it continues to draw a strong audience for cable network.

She'd been out of the recording studio for four years, but when she returned last winter with "Room To Breathe," she received a warm reception from music critics.

"At this point, Reba's music is practically a genre to itself -- earthy, accessible sounds topped with a loving but defiant attitude," wrote Country Music Magazine. " 'Room' makes that formula work like gangbusters, and occasionally even expands on it."

McEntire hadn't toured in more than two years, but it didn't take her long to pick up where she'd left off.

"It was a little scary at first, but after the first song, the first show, I was back in the swing of things and lovin' every minute of it," she said. "I missed the getting out there with the audience and singing."

The daughter of three-time world champion steer roper Clark McEntire, Reba was a rodeo performer herself. She raced barrels as a teenager and into her early 20s. Her mother Jackie taught Reba and her three siblings music.

After singing the national anthem at the National Rodeo Finals in 1974, McEntire was encouraged to go to Nashville and record a demo. She signed a record deal with Mercury in 1975 and was cracking the Top 20 on the country charts a few years later.

In 1982, she landed her first No. 1 single, "Can't Even Get the Blues."

On "Room To Breathe," McEntire explores some of life's complexities.

In the title song, a woman asks her lover for space to find herself. "My Sister" honors personal and universal truths about female siblings.

"Moving Oleta" is about a loved one afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

The album features a number of tunes from bluegrass to traditional country to gospel. Alison Krauss plays fiddle and sings harmony vocals on the record. Vince Gill sings a duet with Reba on "It Just Had To Be That Way."

"I've been very blessed to have some of the greatest songs presented to me for me to sing and I missed (performing) those songs, I really did," she said.