BLUE-CHIP KID

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

LeAnn Rimes, the country singing sensation, has a surprisingly firm handshake for a 14-year-old girl. We're not talking a G.I. Joe kung fu grip, but her handclasp, by way of greeting, is strong, confident and direct. When she has hold of your hand, you know it.

Rimes has taken hold of country music in much the same way. Her debut CD, Blue, has sold more than 3 million copies, making it one of the top-selling albums ever by a female country singer. Two weeks ago her sophomore album, Unchained Melody/The Early Years, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's pop charts. Entering the charts at the top is something the hottest rock and rap acts do on a regular basis, but as far as country acts go, the only other performer to pull that off is veteran megaseller Garth Brooks. Last week Rimes continued her winning streak, taking the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and beating out a slate of more heavily favored rockers--including the pop-ska band No Doubt--to win the highly coveted award for Best New Artist. "I was in shock, and still am," she said backstage. But even in that moment of unexpected triumph, Rimes maintained a precocious awareness of her place in country music: "I am one of the only country artists ever nominated [for Best New Artist] and the only one to win."

Youthful supersuccess can be fascinating--and fragile. It's hard to recall the last time that former pop teen sensation Debbie Gibson got any real radio airplay; and it's difficult to forget those photos of Michelle Kwan, 16, slipping in last month's U.S. figure-skating championships. For Rimes, so far, there have been few stumbles. She was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and raised in Garland, Texas, by her mother Belinda, a homemaker, and her father Wilbur, a seismic-supply salesman who peddled drilling rigs, metal pipes and the like before quitting to co-manage his only child and produce her albums ("I'm not technical," he says of his learn-as-you-go approach).

Wilbur recalls that LeAnn started singing songs like Jesus Loves Me and You Are My Sunshine when she was just 18 months old. He says even then, unlike most infants (and, frankly, many adults), she could "carry a pitch.'' "I've got it on tape," he says, in case there are any disbelievers out there. Says LeAnn: "[The tapes are] really funny because you can understand what I'm saying when I'm singing, but when I'm talking, you can't understand a word."

Early on, Wilbur began entering her in local song-and-dance competitions. When she was eight, he had her cut a record to give her the feel and experience of being in a studio; at 10 she had another practice session; and then at 11 LeAnn recorded a demo that the family sent to Curb Records, a small company in Nashville, Tennessee, that promptly signed her to a recording deal. About a year later, the title song for her first album, Blue, propelled the youngster to the top of the country charts and onto the fast track to stardom. The song was written for Patsy Cline, who died before she could record it, but it seems made for Rimes. The melody is thick and generous, and even if you're not into country, when Rimes' wild-berry-sweet voice yodels through the hook-filled chorus--"blooOOooOOoo"--you feel like putting on a cowboy hat and line dancing.

Unchained Melody/The Early Years is an irony-free collection of songs, most of which were recorded when LeAnn was 11, in her pre-Blue studio sessions (hopefully, a sequel called Unchained Melody II/The Teething Years isn't in the offing). Despite her age, the raw talent and gleaming promise on this album are apparent. Her take on the country standard Blue Moon of Kentucky comes across as fresh and bracing as cold well water, and her version of I Will Always Love You is equally crisp and bright. On every track, Rimes' voice resonates with a mellow center, vibrant edges and a steady glow of pure innocence.

"Her voice changes about every six months," says Wilbur. "By the time you finish one album, she's different again. Now the maturity is coming into it. Where she used to be this kid who could sing real high, now she can cover from the bottom to the top."

One wonders what that journey to maturity will cost. Rimes says she has no friends her age (she doesn't attend school and has a private tutor) and concedes that "it's hard for me to go out places without having people ask for an autograph." At the same time, some of her repertoire seems a bit mature for an adolescent who has yet to have her first date. On the semi-risque song My Baby, she sings, "My baby is a full-time lover ... My baby is a full-grown man." In the video for Blue, she peers out over thick-rimmed sunglasses, an image that evokes Stanley Kubrick's controversial film Lolita. LeAnn says that while she hasn't experienced some of the emotions in her songs, she is capable of conveying them--"like an actor or an actress is an interpreter of a script." Wilbur admits there is a possible downside to his daughter's precociousness: "She's in a grownup world, and she's really advanced for her age. So maybe in that aspect she's grown up a little too quick, but I don't know if that's good or bad. We'll see."

In the meantime, LeAnn says she is taking increasing control of her career to ensure its survival beyond her wunderkind years. She has already written three songs for her next album, which will also probably include covers of standards by Cline and Hank Williams. "I want to build my own life," she says, "not have someone do it for me." Now that Rimes has a hold on stardom, she's not about to let it out of her grasp.