Show Folksy IFexy &ndr©ll By Jack Wehrner hen country singer Barbara Mandrell recently mi ) told a group of her fans “I am where I am because of my family” she wasn’t just giving them a line Mandrell 31 really meant it In an industry notorious for tearing families apart Barbara recently named Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music maintains unusually strong ties to hers Her father Irby is her business manager her mother Mary runs the busi- ness office her husband Ken does all the bookkeeping and her siblings Irlene and Louise are her on the NBC series Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Mom and Pop operation: husband Ken does the bookkeeping children Matthew and Jaime have been on the road with their mother since infancy co-sta- rs Sisters Mandrell’s professional life always has been a family affair When she was a child in California her mother taught her to read music and when she was 11 her father a sales manager for a musical-equipment company asked g his daughter to demonstrate at a Chicago' guitar-playin- convention Country star Joe Maphis who was in the audience was so impressed that he invited Barbara to appear with him in Las Vegas When Barbara was 14 Irby started a family band “The Mandrells” and she toured US Military bases during school breaks She also fell in love with the group’s drummer Ken Dud-newhom she married after graduating from high school Barbara had decided to give up her career to be a wife but a trip with her father to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville changed her mind During the show y full-tim- e Irby recalls “she said ‘Daddy I’d like to get back on the other side of the micro songs: “Married But Not To Each Other” Single in a Double “Sleeping Bed” etc may seem paradoxical a happily married mother of two (Matthew 11 and Jaime 5 with a strong religious background would excel in singing songs of infidelity Barbara doesn’t see anything inconsistent in it “I sing about life and love” “Sometimes she explains It that love is mixed up” There’s nothing mixed up about Barbara Mandrell’s life right now Her latest album Love is Fair produced three top singles (“Crackers” “The Best of Strangers” and “Love is Fair”) and NBC has re- scheduled her popular weekly series for next fall The three sisters: (left to right) Barbara Louise Irlene phone’” Irby arranged singing dates for Barbara around Nashville and word of mouth brought music producer Billy Sherill to hear the young Mandrell perform He got her a contract with Columbia Records and such songs as “Treat Him Right” “Tonight My Baby’s Coming Home” and “Midnight Oil” began to create quite a reputation for this Nashville immigrant Onstage it was family first: "At ages 12 and 13 my sisters started working for me on the road” relates Barbara In fact the closest thing to scandal in the world of Barbara Mandrell is the lyrical content of some of her 20 FAMILY WEFKLY July 12 1981 What’s more the Mandrell family ties are showing no signs of unraveling in the face of success In fact the closeness of the three sisters Barbara says was “one of the reasons NBC was so excited about us” “When they get together it’s like a homecoming” Irby explains “They don’t fight I demanded that they respect each other and taught them to love one another and if you love people you can tolerate them” After her family come her fans “I keep my fans upmost in my mind” she says “I hate to sound corny but that really is the bottom line and they are who I work for” yu |