CMT Blog: Archive

Greta Gaines pushes musical boundaries with her new Southern-rock-influenced album, Whiskey Thoughts, which comes out later this month. But then, boundaries don't mean much to a woman who's also been a correspondent for ESPN, a ski racer, a fly fisherwoman and a champion snowboarder.

"When I was a kid in New Hampshire, my father discovered skiing and thought it was the greatest thing ever, so he made us all become ski racers," says Gaines, who now lives in Nashville. "And I was fly-fishing with my grandfather when I was just a baby girl. Because I was the only girl, it was my way of getting undivided attention from my father and grandfather.

"I'm primarily a fly fisherwoman, but I'm really a catch-fish-woman -- whatever it takes to do that," she laughs. "When I covered the women's Pro Bass Tour for ESPN, I competed in it to see what it was all about. It gave me a huge appreciation for that kind of fishing. Much of the fishing I do these days is in the ocean, where it's not practical to be an artiste and wear your arm out with 90,000 casts. It's still light tackle and you can still use really low-pound test. What's fun is hooking and playing that fish. So I'll live-bait fish, I don't care. I'm addicted to catching fish!"

Gaines is also addicted to snowboarding. "My brothers and I got snowboards in 1982, and we just did it in our backyard. I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyo., after college in 1989. I had my brother send me a snowboard that season, and by 1992 I was a world champion," she says. "I guess it really feeds my soul. I love the mountains. At those altitudes, with all that fresh snow, it just feels like an alternate universe. To me it really is heaven on earth."