Tanya Tucker is back and better and more endearingly bizarre than ever

Usually an entertainer has to die to get the sort of doting career retrospectives written about Tanya Tucker lately. At 61 years old, Tucker was plucked off the oldies act circuit and pushed back into the studio by acclaimed singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile; now she’s getting the best reviews of her nearly half-century long career. Fresh off her first Grammy wins ever, Tucker showed up at the Barns at Wolf Trap on Tuesday and delighted old fans and new with a two-hour-plus set of past hits and recent instant classics, all the while flaunting the pipes, charm and utter unpredictability she had as an untamed ingenue all those years ago.

Tucker had already lived a life that launched a million tabloid tales long before Carlile professionally resuscitated her by writing and producing her recent album, “While I’m Livin’.” She released her first and biggest hit, 1972’s “Delta Dawn,” when she was just 13. Rolling Stone magazine put her on the cover in 1974 in a sultry pose and the headline, “I’m 15, You’re gonna hear from me.” Very famous older men pursued the wild child. “He Taught Her Tricks NO 16 Year Old Should Know!” screamed the cover of the gossip rag Movie Mirror in October 1975, under a paparazzi shot of her and Elvis Presley. Legend holds that Elvis called her “the female Elvis” while putting the moves on her. After Elvis, there was Glen Campbell. A 1980 People magazine cover showed her and Campbell in an embrace and hailed their fling as, “The wildest love affair in showbiz today.”

Bedecked in an ensemble of black rhinestone boots, strategically ripped and very tight black jeans, a frilly black leather jacket and a big white hat that got in her way all night long, Tucker led off Wednesday’s set with blasts from her charts-filled past. Among the highlights: 1973’s “What’s Your Mama’s Name,” a song about a sad sack’s search for the daughter he never knew. None of her nuggets have aged as wondrously as 1987’s “Love Me Like You Used To.” The wistful original was already close to the perfect country song, but the roughness of hard living now reflected in Tucker’s voice only enhanced the pathos of lines like, “Love me like you used to love me when you used to love me.”

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But Tucker’s fresh tunes brought at least as much affection from the fans on this night. Shortly after she finished a pair of new songs, “Mustang Ridge” and “The Wheels of Laredo,” fans broke into a raucous standing ovation that held up the show for a couple minutes. The huzzahs kept coming after she dismissed everybody in her large band from the stage except for the pianist for “Bring My Flowers Now,” a wonderfully sappy new ballad about life’s shortness. “We all think we got the time until we don’t,” she crooned.

Another sign of her rejuvenated celebrity and the unpredictability that made this show such a keeper came when Tucker took a break to brag that she’s now endorsing a boutique tequila line. But the announcement soon devolved from her simply showing off a big bottle of booze into a bizarre, 10-minute free-for-all where she poured shots for any fan who crashed the stage, and often watered down the free hooch with whatever beverage filled the Solo cups she and her band had been drinking from all night. Tucker either isn’t one to let an international viral scare spoil any party she’s throwing, or she figured her product has enough proof to kill any Coronavirus cooties.

After the bonkers tequila shotfest, Tucker ended the set by pairing “Amazing Grace” with the tune that launched her all those years ago, “Delta Dawn.” But while introducing the closer, Tucker delivered a rarely coherent but blatantly earnest speech about how lucky she feels for being able to do what she does and still get noticed for it. Tucker capped off the monologue with an out-of-left-field plot twist, however. “I would give both my Grammys back if we could bring Kobe Bryant back,” she said. That line was either the result of a life spent in showbiz or the tequila talking, but it gave a wacky night an appropriately wacky ending.

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