Country's Teen Queen

Tanya Tucker, who is just 15, was anointed last month by her idol, Merle Haggard. Accompanied as always by her parents, brother and sister, she attended his Manhattan concert and went backstage first. It was the day before The Hag's birthday, so Tanya sang Happy Birthday into his ear. As a reward, Merle invited her onstage to sing her hit, Delta Dawn:

She's 41 and her daddy still calls her baby;

All the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy . . .

Tanya had arrived as a superstar. In a field where almost every top performer is well over 30, Tanya is bringing in a new young audience. Her three albums have each reached the magic top ten.

Since an established country-music career is about as durable as a concert pianist's, Tanya should be around a long time. She does not have a typically sweet, country soprano. In fact, her flinty alto carries a disconcerting and quite false suggestion of whisky, smoke and sex. Already, Would You Lay With Me and Satin Sheets are in her repertory, and anyone listening to them on records might well picture a roadhouse chanteuse instead of an open-faced, honey-haired teen.

Her father, Bo Tucker, realized he had a star in the house when Tanya was eight. Ever since, he has lived off a series of construction jobs round the Southwest wherever he thought Tanya's career might blossom. "It's because of my father's blood and guts that we are where we are today," she says. It is not clear whether "we" is a superstar's first-person plural or an indication that Tanya cannot yet separate her identity from that of her close-knit clan.

Tanya's break came when Country Entrepreneur Billy Sherrill heard one of her "demo" 45s. Six weeks later she recorded Delta Dawn. Now when she walks along a Nashville street, cars slow down and people shout her name. She quit ninth grade a year ago with no regrets. Her future is country music. "We're here to stay," she says confidently.

She talks like a veteran about performing strategy: "I'll sing hard country like Old Dan Tucker or sweet pop like How Can I Tell Him. I usually have something patriotic and something religious. Up North I close with the Battle Hymn of the Republic; down South I use Dixie."

Tanya does not know how much money she earns. Her six-figure income goes into a trust fund. Her lawyer gives her $250 a week as allowance, and she banks it. It seems a country star hardly has to buy anything. "A lot of people give you things," says Tanya genially. "Western belts. A white monster of a truck I call Moby Dick. And a man from South Dakota gave me a new breed of cow with a talent for putting weight on fast. A doctor in Houston promised me a pinto quarter horse if I would just stay the same and not get stuck up for two years. I've got about eight months to go now before I can go back to him and say 'See, I'm just the same. Where's my horse?' "

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