Having successfully hosted The Nashville’s “Celebrity Homes And Hideaways” special, Martina McBride is planning a second such show for later this season, possibly visiting three more homes of country music artists.

On the first such show, which gathered high ratings for its time slot, Martina visited the homes of Barbara Mandrell, Wynonna and Bryan White, all of whom have homes just outside Nashville, Tennessee. 

“I had a lot of input on the special,” she tells Modern Screen’s Country Music. She expects the same on the second show. “TNN came to me with the idea, and we talked about how I wanted to do it. One of the things I was particular about was not to have a script. I’d done television programs wherein it’s supposed to feel really natural, but if there’s a script, it doesn’t feel natural. It’s not going to feel spontaneous if you have to shoot it four or five times.”

As with the first program, the second show will take fans’ questions from mail and the Internet about each star’s home, and Martina will attempt to put on film what the fans want to see and/or hear.

And, as with the earlier show, Martina will be visiting the homes for the first time – nothing prepared in advance. “We’ll do it on the fly, which you can tell when you watch the show. We will take over each other, and the lighting may not be perfect – but it will feel real, because it is!”

Martina admits she loves going to other people’s homes to see how they decorate, and to observe what little personal touches they put in. “My home, I realize, is quite unfinished,” she said, “because I’m hardly ever there. So I have a lot left to do as far as decorating, but we’ve tried to make it comfortable and homey.”

With two small children, Martina  realizes her house “is pretty much decorated by a three-year-old. Toys on the floor, crayon markings on the refrigerator, and that kind of thing.”

The pretty singer was also concerned about security for the stars, and talked to the TNN people about not being too specific about the whereabouts of the home visited.

“These people let us into their homes, to give a very personal glimpse into their life. As an entertainer, I, too, have a tour bus that goes by my house about four times a day, and tries to catch me in curlers and slippers. So I am sensitive to that.”

And, she acknowledged, “You never know who’s going to be on that bus. There are people that might now have your best interests at heart. We make it a point not to show the outside – not to show any place that would give any markings away to let those people know exactly where the home is located.”

As she will in the second program, Martina asks the stars whet they want to show, and what is off-limits, noting there are certain rooms the stars don’t want shown. “But for the most part they are very forthcoming with their house, and let us see most of it.”

There is a possibility TNN will show the first special again, in which case Martina noted several things about each of three stars:

“Barbara’s house has bears all over, since she thinks of her three young children as bear cubs. She has photographs all over the house, revealing to me that family is obviously very important to her. Wynonna loves animals, and takes in strays. And has two small children. And Bryan has a home beautifully decorated – and he’s a bachelor! He admitted his manager’s wife actually decorated the house.”

Frank Barron