They really should have a picture of my hairstyle. I was barely 18 years old, and traveling all around Kansas in a van with a hole in the floor. We sang Pat Benatar, Heart, Journey, all kinds of rock music. I graduated, moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, and joined this band. 'It was my first band out of high school. The black T-Shirt with the band name 'The Penetrators,' revealing her hard-rocking past And when I was done, she made a quilt as a surprise with all of these scraps from different clothes that she had made for us kids.' 'She taught me how to do embroidery and bought me a little kit. 'The animals in the middle (of the quilt) were embroidered,' McBride says. McBride's paternal grandmother sewed many of her childhood outfits for both on and off stage, and shared some of the craft with her granddaughter. It got the industry talking, and it was a big moment on the show.' So that was a memorable night.It sort of like felt like (my) arrival, in a way. I was seven months pregnant with my daughter Delaney, and I had my debut performance on the CMAs (singing) 'Independence Day.' I think I got to do like 50 seconds of it or something. The dress that reminds her of a career breakthrough - and her first childĪmong the outfits on display is one that McBride wore when she performed on the CMA Awards for the first time in 1994. And of course, I have a unicorn on there, because I was 16, and I was very into unicorns. I guess we found a place that pressed (records). 'I went in there on a Sunday afternoon and sang through the songs a few times. 'I won a contest, and the prize was I got to go into a local recording studio in Wichita, Kansas, and record with the band,' McBride recalls. The vinyl single she released at age 16 - a cover of 'Your Cheatin' Heart' - on her own 'Martina Records' It was great exposure, and great experience performing in front of people.' 'I think it gave me not only a rich upbringing in country music - my dad was a traditionalist - but being able to cover songs on the radio, it was great ear training. It wasn't like we were one of five family bands in the area. And when I look back on that, I'm so grateful.' 'I think we kind of took it for granted a little bit, even though it was very different. 'It was such a cool way to grow up,' she says. McBride got her start singing on stage with her family band, The Schiffters (her maiden name is Schiff). One of her first stage outfits she wore at age 7 Like many of her classic songs, nearly every artifact in Martina McBride's new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame has a good story behind it.Īhead of Friday's opening of 'Martina McBride: The Power of Her Voice,' the country star showed us around the career-spanning exhibit - from her childhood stage outfit to her country radio-rattling 'Tomato' T-shirt - and naturally, the memories came flooding back.

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