In the making of her new album The Long Way Home, eight-time Canadian Country Music Association Fan's Choice Entertainer of the Year Terry Clark finds her own way and tells her own story as audience members will see Sunday night at CN Centre.
"The Long Way Home is indicative of the journey I have been on personally and professionally over the past three or four years. I've been through a lot of stuff and I had to write those songs and I had to express a lot of that," said Clark, referring to her mother's cancer diagnosis that changed her priorities. "It's a little more of a mellow record, I think and it gets a little more introspective and the glory of not being held to any ties to a major Nashville label is that I can make any kind of album I want. I made this record as a cathartic thing and I've gotten so many wonderful reviews on it - it definitely felt like the right thing to do."
People often say that when speaking to Clark, it's like chatting with a girlfriend.
"I just am who I am and I don't really think about it," said Clark. "I'm a regular person just like everybody else - truly. I'm horrible in the business of show business. And that's a good thing, it keeps me very grounded."
Clark said she's been doing an unplugged tour across the US for the last month and she goes into the audience after the show. She loves the connection she gets from that.
"I don't know how else to be really, I'm just me," said Clark.
You Tell Me is a song Clark said she wrote a long time ago and when she listened to it again it sounded like a conversation to her. So she asked Johhny Reid to sing it as a duet with her.
"You gotta take chances in order to have success," said Clark. "So I called him up and asked him to sing the song with me. He came in and we knocked it out and he's one of the most gracious people you'll ever meet. Our voices are very different and I think that's why it worked out so well."
Gypsy Boots is one of Clark's new songs with attitude - something people often wonder might be a bit autobiographical in nature.
"I've been living that song for about a month now," said Clark. "And I wouldn't change anything. As long as I can play my guitar and sing for people I'll keep showing up. This is what I do and it's who I am. God put me here for this in a big way and I'm going to keep doing it as long as people want to keep hearing me."
Music is the universal language and it makes you feel so many different emotions, she said.
"And I'm just the vehicle," Clark said. "To me it starts with the song and I'm just grateful that I have acquired the loyalty in the fan base that I've had for the past 15 years and now I seem to be amassing more and it's a real blessing."
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