March 14, 2014

GREENVILLE, S.C., (March 14, 2014) —Contemporary country music superstar Martina McBride will bring her current tour featuring a soon-to-be-released album to the Peace Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, June 13. Tickets are currently on-sale to Peacekeepers until Saturday, March 15 at 10 a.m. when they go on sale to the general public. Ticket prices start at $65. Call 864-679-9210 to become a Peacekeeper and secure the best seats for this and future shows. 
 
Few artists have reached the professional heights of McBride who has won the Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year" award four times (tied with Reba McEntire and Miranda Lambert for the most wins) and the Academy of Country Music's "Top Female Vocalist" award three times. She is also a 14-time Grammy Award nominee. 
 
On April 8, McBride will release Everlasting, a collection of R&B and Soul covers. The album includes duets with Kelly Clarkson and Gavin DeGraw, and was produced by Don Was. Her regular band members will accompany McBride during her Peace Center performance and songs from her new album will be played. 
 
According to McBride, "Singing and playing live on the road is what I love. I’m excited about performing material from my new album and seeing how fans react.” 
 
Peace Center President and CEO Megan Riegel said, “We are thrilled to have one of country music’s most talented and beloved performers play here this summer and I know Martina’s fans from far and wide are excited for the opportunity to hear her play some of her new songs live.” 
 
McBride was born Martina Mariea Schiff in Medicine Lodge, KS, in 1966 and discovered country music through her father, who led a local band called the Schifters. By her teen years, she was singing and playing keyboards with the Schifters, and after high school she gigged around Kansas with several different bands. She married soundman John McBride, and in 1990 the couple moved to Nashville, where John worked for artists like Charlie Daniels and Ricky Van Shelton; Martina, meanwhile, worked as a demo singer, and her husband produced her demo tape, which got her signed to RCA in 1991. Around the same time, John was hired as Garth Brooks' production manager, which helped land Martina an opening slot on tour with Brooks. Her debut album, The Time Has Come, was released in 1992, offering a set of songs indebted to traditional honky tonk and progressive-minded country-folk. The pop-inflected 1993 follow-up, The Way That I Am, was her 
commercial breakthrough, with the lead single "My Baby Loves Me" zooming up the country charts to the number two position. The affecting story-song "Independence Day" became something of a signature number, and another single, "Life #9," also reached the Top Ten. 
 
McBride's 1995 follow-up, Wild Angels, gave her a second Top Five hit in "Safe in the Arms of Love," and its title track became her first-ever number one single. 1997's Evolution became her first Top Ten country album, and the Jim Brickman duet "Valentine" not only went Top Ten, but crossed over to become her first big hit on the adult contemporary charts. Evolution went on to spawn two  number two hits ("Happy Girl" and "Whatever You Say") and two number one hits ("A Broken Wing" and "Wrong Again"), and sold over two million copies, launching McBride into the top rank of country stardom. She issued a Christmas album in late 1998 and returned with a proper follow-up, Emotion, in 1999. Its lead single, "I Love You," hit number one country and also crossed over to adult contemporary radio, and the follow-ups "Love's the Only House," "There You Are," and "It's My Time" were all successful as well (the first two also reached the Top Ten). 2001's Greatest Hits 
compilation was the first McBride album to top the country charts, and sold well enough to make the pop Top Five as well. It contained four new tracks, all of which were eventually released as singles; "Blessed" hit number one, and "When God-Fearin' Women Get the Blues" and "Where Would You Be" both reached the Top Ten. 
 
Tickets for McBride’s performance at the Peace Center start at $65 and are currently on sale to Peacekeepers only. To become a Peacekeeper, call (864) 679-9210. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 15. Tickets may be purchased at all official Peace Center ticket outlets, which include www.peacecenter.org; the Peace Center Box Office located at 300 S. Main St., Greenville, SC 29601; and by phone at (864) 467-3000 or toll-free (800) 888-7768.

For additional information, visit www.peacecenter.org. 

Media Contacts:
Print/Online  Kara Dullea  864-275-3331  kara@detailspr.net	Broadcast  Betsy McMillan  864-804-4436  betsy@detailspr.net