Wednesday, October 1, 2003
|
Wednesday, October 1, 2003 |
|
Hometown girls makes good, Plumb returns for concert tomorrow night By MICHAEL
BOYLAN When Tiffany Arbuckle was growing up in Fayetteville and hanging out with her friends at the Chick-fil-A, she never would have guessed that she would have a career in music. She never thought she would be writing songs for artists like Mandy Moore and Kaci, releasing CDs under the name of Plumb and touring with some of the more popular acts in music today or find herself mobbed by adoring fans on the streets of Manila. That has happened though. Tiffany Arbuckle, now Plumb, is the very definition of hometown girl makes good and tomorrow night she comes home for a performance at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater. Arbuckle moved to Fayetteville when she was in the third grade. She attended Hood Avenue Elementary School, Fayetteville Elementary School, Fayette Junior High and then Fayette County High School. She was in the school chorus and the church choir and enjoyed singing but it wasn't until a year after high school, when she was working as a bank teller to save money for college, that her musical career began. "It was a friend of a friend type thing," said Plumb. "A friend of the family knew I sang and also knew that Bill Gaither's son was seeking a backup singer for his band, Benjamin. I accepted the offer and sang back up for a few years." From there, she moved to Nashville in 1995 and began doing back-up work and session work. In order to pay the bills she was also teaching gymnastics on the side. Her first record deal came along in 1996 and she put out a few albums but she also began songwriting for others. Arbuckle began focusing on her songwriting career more and more, especially as she was getting married and wasn't sure she wanted the road life of a musician. In 2001, she got an offer from Curb Records, known mainly for their success with country artists, but also beginning to branch out into the pop and rock world. Her husband was an account manager for artists signed to Curb and touring sounded more appealing, now that she knew he could come with her. Her deal with Curb was also appealing because, though she is a Christian, her music is for everybody and, unlike her former label, Curb was respectful of her faith but promoted Plumb simply as a pop/rock artist. "It was just getting tired the other way," said Plumb. "I felt it was wrong to market my savior." Whatever Curb has done, it seems to be working. Not only will she be performing at the U-Night 17 Four Nights in October concert tomorrow night, which brings together a number of artists on the contemporary Christian music scene, but she has also been playing with artists that are just plain popular, such as Collective Soul, Jason Mraz, Lifehouse, Lucy Woodward and Simple Plan. Perhaps the nicest surprise of all is her astonishing success in southeast Asia. "A DJ over there really liked my single, "Real" and just started playing it over and over," explained Plumb. "The people started liking it and requesting more, which made MTV Asia want to get their hands on a video and soon Curb told me that I should go over there." And she did. What she found was amazing. Clerks at the local Starbucks wanted their pictures taken with her and everywhere she went people knew who she was. Though her songs are gaining popularity on the charts over here, she could probably go to the Chick-fil-A she used to frequent and not be mobbed. "It was so surreal over there and really just a great honor." Currently, Plumb is preparing to go out on tour this fall to promote her album "Beautiful Lumps of Coal." She is also in the process of writing songs for her next album, so that when she gets a window of opportunity either late this year or early next year she can go into the studio. She is also looking forward to producing more tracks on her next album. She is still continuing songwriting for others as well, and it is no surprise that several of her influences are strong songwriters such as Suzanne Vega and Poe. In fact, Plumb gave herself that name after a song on Vega's "Nine Objects of Desire." Plumb will perform on Thursday night at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater. For ticket information, visit www.unight17.org or www.4nights.org. |
