Gwyneth Paltrow Goes Country

Her 1997 album, Come On Over, is the best-selling country album of all time, and shes one of the very few country singers to be successful on the pop charts. But Shania Twains background is as gritty as any singer who grew up in the backcountry of Tennessee. Twain, 45, was born in Ontario, one of five children. The family had so little that they drove hundreds of miles to get assistance from a homeless shelter in Toronto, and at the age of eight she began singing in bars for twenty dollars a night as her parents looked on. Although her appearance in talent shows attracted some attention, her parents were killed in a car accident in 1986, when Twain was 21. She gave up her career dreams to look after her younger siblings, who were then in their mid-teens. A few years later, though, Twain returned to her career, and with the help of a Canadian country singer, Mary Bailey, got plugged in to the Nashville network. After one album that flopped, producer Mutt Lange took over Twains career, married her in 1993 and helped her craft the albums that made her a worldwide star. The two have a nine-year-old son, Eja. Last year, Twain and Lange divorced because of his involvement with her best friend, Anne-Marie. Then Twain herself became involved with Anne-Maries husband and married him on Jan. 1, 2011. And in another new beginning, shes set to star in Why Not?, a show on Oprah Winfreys fledgling network about fulfilling your dreams.

Anyone who knows the lyrics to the classic Coal Miners Daughter knows where Lynn, now 78, was born (Butcher Holler, Kentucky) and where her daddy worked all night (in the Van Leer coal mines). But theres a lot that isnt said in that autobiographical song how Lynn got married at 13, moved with her husband, Oliver Doolittle Lynn, to Washington state to have more of a chance in life, had six kids and entered a talent contest at age 24. That was the beginning of a legendary career. Lynn ruled the country charts throughout the 1960s and 1970s and wrote a best-selling autobiography, Coal Miners Daughter, that was turned into a movie starring Sissy Spacek. With typical honesty, Lynns said that her marriage to Doo was rough, although the two stayed together until he died in 1996. But although she was pretty traditional on that front, Lynn shocked the conservative country music establishment by writing the 1970s hit The Pill, about a woman who decided shed had enough kids and was finally going to take birth-control pills. She also opposed the war in Vietnam. When I told that to the hippie newspaper, Lynn once said, laughing, all my people got nervous.

Last year was supposed to be the farewell tour for Naomi Judd, who turns 65 this month, and daughter Wynonna. But in typical Judds style, theyre refusing to quit. Theyve added some new dates this year, and theyre appearing on a reality show on Oprah Winfreys network. The show follows them as they prepare for their final tour and, according to the network, continue to explore their complex relationship. Their relationship could hardly be anything else, since their careers have been so intertwined. When Naomi divorced her first husband, she moved to the town of Morrill, Ky., with Wynonna and Wynonnas younger sister, Ashley. After Wynonna showed talent as a singer and guitar player, though, Naomi moved to Nashville with the girls in 1979 and wrangled an audition while working as a nurse for a relative of a well-known record producer. During the 1980s, the duo had fourteen No. 1 hits, and Ashley went on to become a movie star. Naomi stopped performing in the early 1990s because of a chronic hepatitis infection and wrote a best-selling autobiography, Love Can Build a Bridge. Ashley and Wynonna have indicated that their mother was driven and too much of a perfectionist, but Naomi probably wouldnt want to be any other way, especially given the circumstances she faced as a single mother. A dead-end street, she once told an interviewer,is a good place to turn around.

She looks like the archetypal big-haired country singer (and she is), but Parton, who turns 65 this month, is more than that: shes an actress, a songwriter and an entrepreneur. The Backwoods Barbie, as shes called herself, was born in a cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, the fourth of 12 kids. Parton, whos been writing songs since the age of seven, got noticed when she performed on local radio and television. By the time she was thirteen, Parton was recording for a small label. But it wasnt until she was 21, in the late 1960s, that she began recording with Porter Wagoner. After a six-year run, Parton went out on her own, writing and recording songs like Jolene and I Will Always Love You. Though shes one of the most enduring stars in country music, as famous for her over-the top appearance as for her songs, Parton never forgets her roots; besides operating her Dollywood theme park near her hometown, she runs a foundation that distributes free books to children every month. Shes private about her home life: although shes been married to asphalt-company owner Carl Dean since 1966, the couple keep a low profile. And she doesnt talk too much about how she partly raised her younger siblings, or how she and Carl are raising the child of friends who recently died a short time apart. But shes always quick to share a joke with an interviewer: Im not offended by dumb blonde jokes, she said once, because I know Im not dumb. And Im not blonde.

Singing songs that go straight to the heart of womens and family issues is McEntires specialty. The singer, 55, grew up in a middle-class Oklahoma household that had strong Western roots: Her father and grandfather were both champion rodeo steer ropers. Music was also big in the family, with McEntires mother teaching her and her three siblings how to sing. After several singles that flopped, McEntire got her first hit in 1980 with You Lift Me Up (To Heaven). Over the next decade and a half, she had 17 No. 1 singles, plus another 15 in the Top 5.(Her success was marred, though, by a devastating plane crash that killed her tour manager and seven members of her band.) Despite the restrictive atmosphere of the country-music industry, McEntire wrote songs about domestic abuse (Stairs), parental neglect (The Greatest Man I Never Knew) and infidelity (Whoevers In New England). Is There Life Out There, one of her most emotional songs, explored the heartbreak of women who married too soon and wondered whether they were missing out by having too narrow an outlook. (McEntire, a big fan of education for women, got a degree in education after she entered the music business.) Her audience treasures that song, and to see a McEntire concert is to witness a rare personal connection between a performer and her fans. But the star, whos married to her manager, Narvel Blackstock, isnt completely serious: she had enough of a sense of humor to star in a horror/comedy movie, Tremors, about a mysterious monster, and in a wry TV series, Reba. The advice she offers is typically blunt and to the point: To succeed in life, she said, you need a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone."