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Pam Tillis, Josh Brolin, Frank Patterson

I think Pam Tillis has one of the best voices in country. What can you tell me about her and how she got started?
—Ruth T., Iowa

Music was in the family for the Grammy-award winning Pam Tillis, the daughter of country star Mel Tillis. In fact, her latest album, It’s All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, is a tribute to her father’s music. Pam says her father would take her along on writing sessions in Nashville, Tenn., when she was a baby, tucking her into a guitar case on the floor. Pam began her musical training at age 8, studying classical piano and teaching herself to play other instruments. She sang in nightclubs while in college in Knoxville, Tenn., then moved to California, where she was a successful jazz singer. She moved back to Nashville in 1979, working as a songwriter, session singer, and a back-up singer on the road for her father, as well as playing local nightclubs. In 1991, after her No. 1 hit Don’t Tell Me What to Do, she won the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award. In 1994, she was the CMA’s Female Vocalist of the Year and was the first woman to join the Grand Old Opry in the new millennium. Tillis, also a successful record producer, has found time for acting, including appearances on Diagnosis Murder and Touched by An Angel.

I really like the television show Mister Sterling. Is Josh Brolin, the show’s star, related to James Brolin?
—Carrie D., Oregon

James Brolin is Josh’s father. Josh, 35, made his film debut in 1985 in The Goonies. The Los Angeles native (whose stepmother is Barbra Streisand) moves easily between television, movies, and the stage. And he likes to juggle, so to speak. While starring in the movie Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon and Elisabeth Shue, Brolin also was starring on Broadway in Sam Shepard’s production of True West. The NBC show, which has been cancelled, wasn’t his first series; Brolin’s previous ones were Private Eye, The Young Riders, and Winnetka Road. In fact, Private Eye, his first series, aired on NBC from 1987 to 1988. The accomplished stage actor spent five years at the Reflections Festival at the GeVa Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., performing in and directing several of the plays. Brolin’s movie credits include Flirting with Disaster and Mimic. Engaged to Diane Lane, 38, he has a son and a daughter from a previous marriage to Alice Adair.

I heard that Frank Patterson, the great Irish tenor died. When did he die and from what?
—Hansel T., Louisiana

The man known as Ireland’s Golden Tenor passed away in New York City on June 10, 2000, from a brain tumor. He is buried in Tipperary, Ireland, where he grew up, and is survived by his wife, concert pianist Eily O’Grady, and their son Eanan. Patterson declared that he would be a singer on his first day of school and performed locally as part of a group called the Wren Boys when he was in his teens. In 1962, he started formal voice training in Dublin and soon found himself gathering one vocal award after another at Ireland’s national music festival. It didn’t take long before his talent was known around the world—he’s performed for both President Reagan and President Clinton, as well as Pope John Paul II. He acted and sang in the film The Dead alongside Anjelica Huston, and sang Danny Boy in the movie Miller’s Crossing. He was thrilled when he was invited to appear on The Tracy Ullman Show because it gave him an opportunity to show off his flair for comedy. Patterson recorded more than 35 albums over his 30-year career, and delighted in bringing Irish music to American audiences through his PBS television specials. His final show for the public television channel was God Bless America, a musical salute to his adopted country.

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