Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/215016
Hill and McGraw at the 24th American Music Awards in 1997 (TOP) and the 34th Academy of Country Music Awards in 1999 (BOTTOM). "We were able to bring basically the design of a stadium-style show and put it into a theater." PHOTOGRAPHY BY DENISE TRUSCELLO/WIREIMAGE (OPPOSITE PAGE); SGRANITZ/WIREIMAGE (AMA); JIM SMEAL/WIREIMAGE (CMA) —FAITH HILL before our interview. They're the rare pair of modern country superstars who've sustained both a marriage and megawatt careers, raising three daughters together and amassing a staggering number of Top 10 country hits between them—well over 60, counting those he scored this year— while Hill enjoys blockbuster pop crossover success and McGraw also makes acclaimed turns on the big screen. Country music just doesn't have a template for a hot-ticket couple with this sort of staying power. So these two are making it up as they go. Says McGraw, "It's not like, 'Well, now we've gotten to a point in our career where we're not touring anymore and we're not gonna make records and we're not gonna do this or that, so we're gonna go to Vegas and play.' Everything that we want to do in our careers is available. So we can pick and choose and do the things that we want to do, and line 'em up in a way that works for our lives." The duo's initial 10-weekend run of Soul2Soul worked so well for their lives that they decided to return to Venetian for an encore, with 10 more weekends on the calendar, ending in April. Hill emphasizes what a big deal it is to coax that sort of commitment out of performer parents with plenty else on their plates: "We've not worked together since we went on our last tour in, I guess, 2007, the big Soul2Soul tour. Our kids were much younger then, and it was easier to kind of load 'em up and bring the entire circus on the road. So when the Venetian approached us with the possibility of doing a few weekends for them, one of the first things that they offered was that they would work within our schedule parameters. "The Venetian was so brilliant in how they accommodated us," she continues, "in such a way that it was one of the greatest experiences that we have ever had playing live together. I mean, this beautiful 1,800-seat theater, working around our children's sports schedules and proms and all this kind of stuff that goes on once you get kids in high school, not to mention artistically. We were able to bring basically the design of a stadiumstyle show and put it into a theater." That's not to say that McGraw and Hill simply transported the same old show to a new venue. The separate sets and backing bands of their stadium tours have given way to a collaborative 90-minute performance, accompanied by a crack eight-piece group. "The big difference," says McGraw, "is in between songs and when you're talking to the audience. You can talk to everybody, and in a lot of cases you can hear people [respond]. And that's when it becomes fun and it becomes sort of…" "Very spontaneous," says Hill. "And it also becomes a relationship in a different way than it is in a big VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 115 112-117_V_Feat_CS_TimFaith_Dec13.indd 115 11/19/13 4:20 PM