A Crystal clear concert

Young Chang

Crystal Gayle doesn’t clearly remember when she signed her first

recording contract. It was sometime in high school.

When asked how many years ago she put out her fourth album, “We Must

Believe in Magic,” she can’t really say.

She doesn’t readily recall the exact years for the three times she was

named Country Music’s Female Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of

Country Music either.

Some people keep track of their credentials and play the

name-that-award game. Others, like Gayle, are too busy performing more

than a hundred concerts in the U.S. a year and touring international

countries to care.

“That’s all nonsense,” she said. “I like songs. I like music. And I

don’t like the games that go along with the music business.”

The Grammy-winning Nashville-resident will perform both old and new

tunes at Orange Coast College’s Robert B. Moore Theatre Sunday. Her hits

include “Wrong Road Again,” “Beyond You,” “Somebody Loves You” and “I’ll

Get Over You.”

“She has never been an extremely goal-oriented person in the sense of

wanting to achieve certain things,” said Gayle’s husband Bill Gatzimos,

from Nashville, Tenn. “She has just gone out and tried her best.”

Judging from her track record, her best has paid off.

She has almost three dozen hit records, a duet with Eddie Rabbit

titled “You and I,” a duet album with Gary Morris, the theme song from TV

soap opera “Another World,” two Christian albums and a string of awards

to her credit.

Her latest release is a tribute to Hoagy Carmichael, the creator of

the song “Heart and Soul.”

“I think every piano player has played that song,” Gayle said. “But I

never really thought about the words.”

Raised in Indiana, she worked with Carmichael in 1981 and sang with

him for a television special. She feels honored to have been a part of

his career and has named her recent album “Crystal Gayle Sings the Heart

& Soul of Hoagy Carmichael.”

But exposure to celebrities is nothing new for Gayle. Her sister is

country-music legend Loretta Lynn.

“At the time [Loretta Lynn] started out, country music wasn’t as

popular as it is today,” said Gayle. “People would be closet country

music fans. They really liked country music but they didn’t want to admit

it.”

Gayle has no qualms admitting she is proud of country music.

Today, she sings country and gospel and listens to everything from

folk to pop and rock ‘n roll. Gayle said she never felt she had to record

just one style of music.

Her Christian albums are her way of saying she’s not ashamed to be a

Christian.

“I’m just letting people know me,” she said. “Not trying to make up

their minds. Because no matter how much you try to drill it into someone,

you can’t.”

FYI

WHAT: Crystal Gayle in Concert

WHERE: Orange Coast College’s Robert B. Moore Theatre, 2701 Fairview

Road, Costa Mesa

WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday

TICKETS: $27 to $33

CALL: (714) 432-5880