First Published in Country Music International – March 1999

From early beginnings as a six-year-old performing at the East Texas Gary Jamboree to a major label siging with Arista Records and a smash hit with Reba McEntire, Linda Davis is now promoting a new album on DreamWorks and hope to build a British following for her music. “The sky’s the limit,” she tells Alan Cackett

"I had a chance during those few years to get to know a lot of up-and-coming songwriters and artists. like Joe Diffie, Trisha and Garth. We were all knocking around, starving at the same time. That gave me a foundation of feeling like I belonged to the community. You couldn't give me a million dollars for those tough, but great years."

Since appearing on stage at the East Texas Gary Jamboree aged six, Davis has progressed through performances on the legendary Louisiana Hayride, a Nashville piano bar stint, waitressing, demo singing, several not-so-fruitful record deals and, for the past six years, working with her husband, Lang Scott, as backup vocalist for Reba McEntire.

Linda Davis has been regarded as one of the most distinctive song stylists in Nashville for years, yet she has bounced around with different labels and musical styles without too much commercial success. But Davis is a fighter, and having landed on DreamWorks Records last year, is not about to let a negative attitude problem about past disappointments hold her back.

"I've got to work with people that I respect and love that I can call friends, so I don't need to be bitter towards something that's been good to me. And I want it to be good to me for a long, long time. The fans are very perceptive of people with attitudes. They can just tell when you walk in a room if you're happy or if you're cold. I'm not cold. I'm a warm person."

Davis' enthusiasm for life, her music, her family, friends and fans is apparent as soon as you meet her. She opens up immediately and admits she finds it difficult to stop chatting. She does admit, though, that she has been totally speechless, just once in her life.

It was on stage at Fan Fair last summer. Her single, I Wanna Remember This, from the soundtrack of Black Dog, was climbing the charts, but she had no record deal. James Stroud, head of DreamWorks Nashville, strode on stage to offer Davis a recording contract. "I didn't know anything about it," she says. "They brought my contract to me onstage in front of 25,000 fans. I was speechless, and I don't ever get speechless. I can always talk, but that day I just didn't know what to say. On the way home I started crying, because I was so happy."

Linda's association with James Stroud went back more than 20 years to when she was just 13 and made her recording debut and he was a struggling local drummer. "This was back in Louisiana," she recalls. "My uncle paid for the session, and James played the drums. I did a couple of songs that my uncle had written. I was like his demo singer. It gave me the opportunity to go into a professional studio and have that experience."

Davis also recorded a Kent Robbins song, Clap Your Hands, which Ronnie Milsap had included on his A LEGEND IN MY TIME album. By now she was making regular appearances on the popular Louisiana Hayride radio show in Shreveport, which a generation before, had been a springboard for Slim Whitman, Faron Young, Jim Reeves and the young Elvis Presley.

A couple of years later she was befriended by Phil Baugh, a well-respected guitarist who had toured and played sessions with Ray Price, Merle Haggard, George Jones and many other country acts. "He suggested I move to Nashville," she says, 'and I was just waiting for the opportunity. He helped make that happen." She recorded for Baugh's SoundWaves Records in Nashville, but as she was still only 15 and attending high school, she didn't make the move to Music City for another four years.

"I finished my high school education and moved to Nashville," she continues. "Phil and a man named Murray were in publishing, and they wanted a female vocalist to sing with this guy named Skip Eaton. We didn't get all the attention and the accolades that we wanted, but it go me to Nashville, for which I'll be forever grateful."

Known as Skip & Linda, the duo scraped the bottom of the country charts in 1982 with three singles on the now-defunct MDJ label, also the starting place for Alabama. When they split, Davis had to get work outside of music, and it was a particularly low point in her life. "I had to get a job to pay the bills, she says. "I worked in an office answering the phone and I was a waitress. It was just odd jobs; I was there to sing, but I got to eat."

Around this time she met husband Lang Scott, a young singer and guitarist who was trying to get established in Nashville. Romance blossomed as they worked together in the music business. Unlike so many showbiz couples, they have stuck together, and she credits much of her strength during her years of career struggle to having such a wonderful family life.

"I was very unhappy because I wasn't singing," she recalls. "Lang kept reminding me that I could do it. He was there for me; I started getting my confidence back and found a job singing and playing in a piano bar."

That was Nashville's Music City Sheraton's piano bar, where she worked from 1985-1990—"Some nights it was just me tables and chairs and me,” she recalls—but it was a good gig that provided rent money and valuable exposure.

Being close to Music Row, many music business people frequented the bar, and she was soon being asked to do demo work around town. Often people would request songs, and Linda prided herself on being able to perform any country song requested. The most fruitful request came from a silver-haired man who had become a regular at the bar.

"I would keep up with everybody that sang or was in the music business,'' she explains, 'but you don't see pictures of the producers. They are just faces you never see. This silver-haired man would say, "Would you do Misty Blue?' I did it, and afterwards he'd say: ‘I wrote that.' My knees started knocking. I had to take a break. I was so nervous."

The silver-haired man was Bob Montgomery. Like Linda, he came from Texas, beginning his career with Buddy Holly as Buddy & Bob the Western Bop duo. He had gone on to write and produce numerous country and pop hits for such diverse acts as Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, Bobby Goldsboro, Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins, Janie Fricke, Vern Gosdin and Joe Diffie. Little wonder that Davis was shaking with nerves as he offered her a deal with Epic Records.

"I owe a lot to Bob Montgomery," she says. "The records that we made weren't big hits, but I have to thank him for helping me get into position to go through other doors that opened. They are not failures at all—just little steps to help get ready for other things. We had three singles and enough music to make an album, but they never put it out. It was a little bit disappointing."

The next door that opened maintained the Texas connection, as Linda was taken under the wing of Erv Woosley, George Strait's long-time manager. This led to her opening shows for the Texan honky-tonker, yet though she gained experience and considerable exposure, still that all important breakthrough eluded her. It was then that Reba McEntire and her husband-manager Narvel Blackstock came into the picture.

"After meeting at a fair date we met again in Nashville a week or so later," Davis recalls. "Narvel said: 'I'd like to help you.’ Reba was real excited about trying to help my career—that was when that relationship began."

Blackstock arranged for Linda to meet Jimmy Bowen, at the time Reba's producer and head of Capitol Nashville. He signed her to the label and co-produced two albums. Though she was touring as an opening act for Garth Brooks, the albums only yielded one single each, and each suffered a similar fate on the charts.

Davis and Bowen parted ways late in 1992, and she and husband Lang Scott hit the road as backup singers with McEntire's band. It seemed she was destined to end up one of many anonymous background singers, but then fate stepped in in the guise of Does He Love You?, a duet song with Reba. That was almost five years ago, and Linda still cannot understand how or why she was chosen to sing it.

"When Reba asked me to sing Does He Love You?, with her, I didn't have a record deal," she says. "I was nobody. I kept thinking this is unreal. Why would I be the one singing with her when there's so many others with big careers that she could sing with."

Does He Love You? marked a turning point in her career. Not only did the song hit the top of the charts, it also garnered a Grammy. Five days after Davis and McEntire's showstopping performance on the CMA awards telecast, and on the strength of some demos she had recorded with producer John Guess, she was signed to Arista by Tim Dubois, who had previously passed on the opportunity. 

"After seeing me sing that night, I think Tim Dubois saw the potential," she says. "That's when we released SHOOT FOR THE MOON. I'm very proud of that album. Company Time was the single, and we made a video about sexual harassment in an office. The subject matter was pretty heavy and I guess not everybody wanted to hear or see that. Actually, the video got more attention than the record."

She should have scored with Company Time, and SHOOT FOR THE MOON should have been a major success. Guess' production allowed the full power of her voice to come through, but while the marketing was at its height she was out on the road for more than 150 days with Reba McEntire, singing back-up vocals, duets, and her own solo spot in a show that played to thousands every night.

A second Arista album, SOME THINGS ARE MEANT TO BE, fared slightly better, with the title tune making the Top 20. But it wasn't enough to propel the album to gold or platinum status, and by late 1996 Davis again found herself without a record deal. But she was still working regularly on the road with Reba.

"She is real close friend and we get on like two big sisters," Linda enthuses. "I feel so lucky to have that kind of friendship with someone like Reba. She has helped me with my career in so many ways. Without her support, I'm not sure where I would be now."

To demonstrate continuity in her career—and to preserve some songs that should be introduced to a new audience—she included seven of her old songs on I'M YOURS, her first album for DreamWorks. "I know a good song when I hear it, she says, 'and that's why I've included songs like In Pictures and What Do I Know, that other artists recorded and had hits with."

Alongside her Stateside career Linda would like to develop an international following. Having tasted the generosity of British audiences, she now counts Britain as a viable market for her music and is keen to build a fan base there.

"I think the sky's the limit," she enthuses. "I have a lot of confidence that I could come over and sing for the people. I didn't expect such a warm welcome. I knew folks would be cordial, but I didn't expect the familiarity to be so high. I'm very humble."