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COUNTRY SINGER BEVERLEY MAHOOD and her manager, Tom Cross, are describing the early days of Lace: the false starts, the hardships, one girl quitting, the solo project - it's a miracle the group survived at all. The conversation, in a cafe in Toronto, has the mood, if none of the specifics, of the classic rock-band reminiscence: meeting at art school, listening to Howlin' Wolf albums, hitting the road, and then hitting it big - until the lead singer quits, the bass player goes into rehab, and the drummer chokes on his own vomit. This is nature's cycle. When Mahood and Cross talk about Lace, it's with a similar sense of nostalgia, which is odd, given that the band is less than two years old and has yet to release its first CD. Lace was originally the idea of David Foster, producer to the stars (Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion), fourteentime Grammy winner, and the expatriate Canadian patriot behind "Tears Are Not Enough." Almost two years ago, Foster saw a niche for an all-girl country band, and in a moment of hubris, he set out to create one. Mahood, a twentyfour-year-old country singer from London, Ontario, with a solo career and two Juno nominations, was the first girl he chose.
"David pitched her on a Supremes or a Spice Girls of country," says Cross, a blond man with a wide smile. The band would be young, talented, very beautiful, and very big.
"David said to me, 'You know, Beverley, you can get to where you're going. But I can get you there faster," Mahood recalls. She has the kind of slightly retro blonde...