Patricia Conroy has this habit when she wants to make a point. She leans over the table, getting closer and closer, making sure each word is perfectly clear. She peeks to see if a note-taker is getting things down right.
Control's an important thing. Ever since she began singing country 20-odd years ago in that hotbed of twang -- Montreal's Notre Dame de Grace district -- Conroy's had an almost eerie sense of what she wanted to do and how she would get it done. If it did not slide right in to what everybody else was doing, those were the breaks.
You can sense it on Conroy's latest album, her third. For one thing, You Can't Resist screams ``crossover.'' It's filled with cuts that would sound equally at home with Bonnie Raitt or Melissa Etheridge as they would be in the NewCountry format.
These are not lame rock songs masquerading as country. The country music industry euphemism for this type of material is ``roots-based'' meaning there are definable traces from the good old days of both country and rock.
That may be a problem.
You could practically hear necks snapping back in the studio at CKBY recently when Conroy -- who opens for country-hunk Billy Ray Cyrus at Hull's Guertin Arena Friday night -- did the morning show with Mark Papousek and played the title cut off the album. Written by Lyle Lovett (another bane of the NewCountry format), the song rocks with steel and slide guitars, a thundering drum part and a twisting, spinning vocal.
``There have been some raised eyebrows, I suppose, but that's what I set out to do. After my last album (Sad Day for Trains), I was just getting offered different versions of the same song. I had to go back to publishers two or three times to try and get what I wanted,'' she said.
It's not, she insists, some precious attempt to be different for the sake of being different. Nevertheless, it might not be the right time in her career to be slipping out of the rigid country pocket.
Her album's about six months old in Canada now, with a couple of number one singles, and Conroy -- the Canadian Country Music Association's top female vocalist in 1994 -- says she's heard it's sold about 25,000 copies here so far.
But Warner still hasn't picked up on it for U.S. release and, although she says she and her people are looking into other strong possibilities for U.S. distribution, it's plain she's confused and more than a little hurt by the cold shoulder.
The lack of a U.S. deal has a devastating side effect.
It means she's blacklisted from influential Country Music Television, the U.S.-based video clip network that's also big in Europe, where Conroy travels later this year.
CMT bounced Canadian artists without U.S. labels when the CRTC indulged the fledgling Canadian video station -- New Country Network -- and banned CMT from Canadian airwaves.
``That's still something I have the hardest time understanding,'' she says. ``Just who is it helping? It's not doing Canadian artists any real good and it's just hurting a lot of people like myself who were getting exposure in the U.S.''
Conroy, 35, has gone more than halfway to make American friends. A little more than a year ago she gave up a very comfortable big-fish-little-pond existence in her adopted home of Vancouver to set up in Nashville.
She describes the experience as overwhelmingly positive. Just being in Nashville plugged her into the industry's core, with publishers, songwriters and musicians coming out of the woodwork. Not only can she get hold of key people in a hurry, it's already had an effect on her performing and writing.
``It was lonely and strange at first, but that's the same for any new home,'' she says. ``Once I figured out the routines, everything fit together better and better.''
So, if she's doing her bit, why isn't the industry playing ball?
``In a way, listening to what's charting on American radio radio right now, I'm not too surprised my record is causing some confusion. But this is what I do. I really feel I nailed it.''
Her determination has led her to resist pressures such as those exerted on friend, colleague and Nashville neighbor Michelle Wright, whose album The Reasons Why was completely juggled before her U.S. label would release it.
The U.S. version replaced four songs from the Canadian version with four up-tempo numbers, such as the first U.S. single He Sure do Crank My Tractor.
``Michelle's got a lot of people giving her a lot of advice. She's a smart, tough woman and I know she's going to come through,'' is all Conroy will say when asked about the U.S. remix.
Conroy, Wright and a third ex-patriot Sue Medley (who does background vocals on You Can't Resist) have set up an informal Canadian songwriting club down in Music City.
``We get along real well and, hopefully, we can blend our experiences and make the whole thing bigger than the sum of the parts.''
As for her and U.S. country music, Conroy thinks there may just be a built-in delay because the immensity of the U.S. market.
New sounds just take longer than they do in Canada to trickle down to the listeners.
``But nobody owes me anything and you really have to think about the long haul. People like Mary Chapin Carpenter just worked and worked until everyone else caught up, so there's hope.''
