LORETTA LYNN BOOK ME & PATSY KICKIN UP DUST IN STORES APRIL 7TH. 

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Loretta Lynn’s inaugural Gospel Music Festival is getting major support and media coverage this week. The Loretta Lynn Ranch will play host to the first Loretta Lynn Gospel Music Festival in September 2013.

“Its kind of like an old-time all-day singing and dinner on the ground,” Loretta said. “I got to thinking. I have a big ranch where I live so I decided to throw a good ole Gospel weekend here! I want family and friends to bring a blanket, set up a picnic and then enjoy some of my favorite Gospel music singers! I may even come down and sing a song myself!

“I hope it will be something we can keep going every year,” she continued. “I already have a big campground and cabins where people can stay. We also have a big stage – we have concerts all summer and have done so since 1974.”

Scheduled to appear are Mark Lowry, The Hoppers, The Isaacs, Karen Peck & New River, Gold City, Rambo-McGuire, The Singing Cookes, The Freemans, Brian Free & Assurance, Michael Combs, Archie Watkins & Smoky Mountain Reunion, and The Sneed Family. For early arrivals, there will be a special bonfire and sing-a-long on September 27.

“I should have started this years ago,” Loretta said. “But, it’s never too late – I am inviting everyone to my ranch to have a great ole Gospel time! It’ll be a fun time for the whole family. Speaking of family, I want to thank Jeff Sneed and The Sneed Family for helping me plan and promote this Gospel Music Festival. We sure are looking forward to this special time!”

Legendary performer, Loretta Lynn headlined the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois for three consecutive sold-out weekend shows on Friday June 22nd, Saturday June 23rd and Sunday June 24th, 2012.

 

The gorgeous 980 seat theatre exhibited elegance and intimacy. Large crystal chandeliers overlooked comfortable red plush seating inside the proscenium styled venue giving each patron a clear view of the concert stage.

 

Before the Coal Miner’s Daughter made her grand entrance, her beautiful twin daughters Patsy and Peggy also known as “The Lynns,” opened the show with a selection of songs from their latest record and a few covers. “That’s All I’ve Got To Say,” “Sara” and “One Of These Lonely Nights,” can be found on their album The Lynns II, and the girls take on Don William’s classic, “Tulsa Time” had the audience on their feet. Patsy and Peggy joked around with one particular woman in the front row who might have had just a little too much to drink, but that didn’t stop her from telling them that she is theirs and Loretta’s #1 fan.

 

It was most recently announced at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, this past May that Loretta’s fascinating life story will be adapted into a Broadway musical. Hollywood actress Zooey Deschanel, who joined Lynn onstage at the Ryman Auditorium to perform “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” will portray the coveted role. 

 

As timeless as her vast catalogue of hit songs, the simple girl from Butcher Holler, Kentucky has not changed one bit since her humble beginnings; Lynn’s unmistakable witty sense of humor and vivacious persona shined brighter and bolder than ever at each performance. One would be absolutely amazed at how strong and consistent her distinct vocals remain on the live stage.

 

Showing no sign of slowing down, Loretta Lynn has proved that age is nothing but a number and just because you can’t get airplay on the radio any longer, neither of those two will stop her from doing what she loves best; sharing her life and songs with her beloved fans.

 

Lynn wasted no time serving up her awestruck audience with all the hits that they had come to hear. Opening up the show with a rousing version of “They Don’t Make Em’ Like My Daddy Anymore” and “You’re Lookin’ At Country,” the audience immediately rose to their feet with a standing ovation.

 

The excitement of the evening continued with additional ballads “When A Tingle Becomes A Chill,” “Here I Am Again,” “Blue Kentucky Girl” to more up tempo numbers like the sassy, “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “Fist City,” One’s On The Way” and “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’.”

 

Loretta kidded around with the audience and took personal requests for their favorite song of choice. She also shared the news that music legend Chubby Checker will join her on the weekend of July 5th to perform in honor of the late Conway Twitty at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN.

 

We would also like to mention that there will be a very special Conway Twitty exhibit unveiled on the same weekend in the Coal Miner’s Daughter Museum. Loretta’s personal assistant, Tim Cobb has done an excellent job as curator of the museum through the years. Upon entering the museum, fans are taken on a multi-sensory journey into the life and career of Loretta Lynn complete with personal mementos, awards, outfits, family photos and more. We highly recommend our readers to take a trip down to Tennessee to visit the ranch.

 

Speaking of Conway, Loretta performed a sensational duet of “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” with her friend and band member, Bart Hansen, at the show. Fans were also treated to a touching version of “She’s Got You,” originally recorded by the great Patsy Cline. During our interview with Loretta earlier in the day, she informed us that after Patsy had a hit with the song; she later recorded it and also had a #1 hit with it in 1977.

 

Loretta turned the stage over to her backup singers Lee Hilliard, Michael Lusk and Sheldon Feazel to harmonize on country classics “Man Of Constant Sorrow” and then join her on Gospel favorites “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven,” “Who Says God Is Dead” and “Where No One Stands Alone.”

 

One of the most significant moments of the night was the strong response that Loretta received from the audience on the patriotic tune, “God Bless America Again.” Loud cheers and solid applause came from the entire theatre, and there were some who even stood up during the song to show their undying love for God and country. Last but not least, the signature song, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” closed out the 2 hour show.

 

Set List:

 

1. They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore

2. You’re Lookin’ At Country

3. When A Tingle Becomes A Chill

4. I Wanna Be Free

5. Here I Am Again

6. Fist City

7. She’s Got You

8. Crazy

9. Lead Me On

10. Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man

11. One’s On The Way

12. The Pill

13. Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’

14. Dear Uncle Sam

15. Love Is The Foundation

16. Blue Kentucky Girl

17. Your Squaw Is On The Warpath

18. How Long

19. Man Of Constant Sorrow

20. Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (But Nobody Wants To Die)

21. God Bless America Again

22. Who Says God Is Dead

23. Where No One Stands Alone

24. Coal Miner’s Daughter

 

Loretta Lynn’s life, line

In new book, she tells music’s story

by James Reed

By the time the chorus comes around, you can usually tell if it’s a Loretta Lynn song. The iconic country singer is famous for threatening to send a rival to “Fist City” if she didn’t “detour around my town.” To another would-be homewrecker, she once boasted, “You ain’t woman enough to take my man.” Lynn has also sung about social issues we’re debating to this day, from birth control (“The Pill”) to the results of not taking it (“One’s on the Way”).

This is clear: Loretta Lynn, who’s still a spitfire at 76, suffers no fools.

Born a coal miner’s daughter, “in a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler,” as her signature song goes, Lynn has just written a new book. “Honky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyrics” is an overdue salute to Lynn’s 50-plus years of songwriting, with a reverent foreword by Elvis Costello.

Set for release on Tuesday, the book presents Lynn’s lyrics alongside her anecdotes about writing them. It’s also sprinkled with passages about musicians who have inspired her — from Kitty Wells to Jack White, who produced Lynn’s Grammy-winning 2004 album, “Van Lear Rose” — as well as personal photos of Lynn throughout the years and handwritten lyrics scrawled on hotel stationery.

On the phone from her home in Tennessee, Lynn recently reflected on the art of writing from the heart and why it was so important to her career, and sang the praises of a celebrated songwriter she hopes to meet one day: Bob Dylan

Q. Early in the book, you outline your approach to writing: “For me, I could and can only write what I’ve lived.” Did songwriting come naturally to you?

A. It did, but I never could write before I started [writing songs]. I could never understand that. When I wrote my first song [“I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” released in 1960], they started popping out every three or four days. It was a good thing because my writing is what got me my first recording contract in Nashville. They said, “We don’t have anybody that can write for you,” and I thought, “God, what’s wrong with me?” (Laughs.)

Q. Would you have been as successful if you hadn’t written your own songs?

A. No. I’ve never been able to ask a writer for a song that I thought fit me right at the time. You have to be in the frame of mind of what you’re going through at the time. When I recorded my songs, that was exactly how I felt.

Q. I ask that question because music is full of great singers who never get their due because they don’t write. People really do relate to artists who write their own material.

A. I think so, too. They can put more into it when they sing it, and whoever is listening to that song can feel it.

Q. When do you know you’ve got a good song on your hands?

A. Well, I think singers – I’m not going to say all of them, because I hear some of them come out with the crummiest stuff – I think most people that really write know when they’ve got a good song. Me and Shawn Camp have been writing together. He’s one of the greatest little songwriters going right now. He’s kind of a bluegrass singer, but he can write any type of song.

Q. Was a song like “Dear Uncle Sam,” about a woman torn between the love of her country and the love of her man, controversial when you released it in 1966?

A. That was when I first started singing, back during the Vietnam War. My husband and I were listening to the radio to see if the disc jockeys were playing any of my records. And I said to my husband, “I am so sick of war. I don’t like war. I can’t take it.’’ He said, “Well, why don’t you just write about it?’’ So I got my pencil and paper out right then, and I wrote just how I was feeling. I sing that song every night. And you know, this has been the longest war we’ve ever had in our lives. So many people want to hear it. When I look out and see people crying and wiping their eyes, it bothers me, because I know they’re going through something that I hope I never have to go through.

Q. Have you ever shied away from writing about something?

A. Nothing. If I think about it, I’m gonna write it. You may never know why, but I’m going to write it.

Q. I was astonished to learn in the book that “Coal Miner’s Daughter” originally had eight more verses.

A. Yes. [My producer] Owen Bradley said, “Loretta, you take some of them verses off. There’s already been one ‘El Paso,’ and there will never be another.” Remember, “El Paso” [a hit for country singer Marty Robbins] was real long, almost five minutes. That was the hardest thing I ever did, though, was take the verses off.

Q. Did you ever consider rerecording the song with the extra verses?

A. Well, I think I left the verses there that night [in the studio]. I just ran off and forgot them. But I don’t remember now what they were.

Q. You just broke my heart.

A. (Laughs.) Well, listen, if I’m ever going to put those verses back together, I’ll send you a copy. You’ll get the first dadgum one.

Q. I once read that you used to joke that everyone had the wrong idea about you and Tammy Wynette based on your songs. In real life, Tammy was the feisty woman you portrayed on record, and you were the one more likely to stand by your man.

A. That’s the truth. We laughed about that, too.

Q. The last time we spoke, you mentioned how much you admire Bob Dylan.

A. And I still haven’t got to meet him yet.

Q. Really? Should I make some calls for you?

A. You’re gonna have to. I need to meet that boy. I saw him the other day singing somewhere. It’s so funny to watch him sing. Have you noticed that? (Adopts a prim accent and sings): “The answer my friend/Is blowin’ in the wind.” (Laughs.)

Q. What do you like about Dylan’s songs?

A. Well, you can’t beat that song, can you? I love that song. And Bob just knows how to put a song together. I’m not gonna say that he knows how to sing them. I’m just gonna say he knows how to put them together. (Laughs.) To watch him sing is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m a big fan of his.

Q. I’m sure he’s a fan of yours, too.

A. I don’t know if he’s ever heard of me, you know.

Q. I guarantee you you’re wrong.

A. Well, I hope so. (Laughs.)

Q. The book ends with lyrics for several unreleased songs. Does that mean you’ve got a new album coming soon?

A. Yes. I’ve got a new Christmas album coming out. I’ve got a new religious album cut. And I’ve got another album cut of some of the biggest hits that I ever wrote for Decca and you can’t find anymore. I rerecorded them.

Q. I hear you’ve also been writing with Bret Michaels from the band Poison.

A. Yes. He came down and cut one of his records in my little studio. I’m singing “The Rose” with him.

Q. The Bette Midler hit?

A. No, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

Q. Oh, wow. That’s a surprise. And you’re also working with Elvis Costello?

A. Yes. He’s funny. He was telling somebody how he took his computer out and was writing on his laptop. And there was Loretta sitting with a pencil in her hand and a piece of paper. So that was our writing session. (Laughs.)

Q. What does Jack White think of all these new collaborators?

A. He loves it. Jack is a great person. He really is. You know he got married and he’s got two little girls. But him and his wife broke up. I hate that, especially after the kids. But I seen him the other day, and he looks good. He hadn’t changed a lick. His hair is still the same. Jack looks the same.

Q. When you think back on all the songs you’ve written, is there anything that ties them all together, a common thread?

A. I think just knowing that I spoke my mind on every song I ever wrote

One of the most beloved country music stars of all time gives us the first collection of her lyrics and, in her own words, tells the stories that inspired her most popular songs, such as "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin'," and, of course, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl."

Loretta Lynn's rags-to-riches story--from her hardscrabble childhood in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, through her marriage to Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn when she was thirteen, to her dramatic rise to the top of the charts--has resonated with countless fans throughout her more than fifty-year career. Now, the anecdotes she shares here give us deeper insight into her life, her collaborations, her influences, and how she pushed the boundaries of country music by discussing issues important to working-class women, even when they were considered taboo. Readers will also get a rare look at the singer's handwritten lyrics and at personal photographs from her childhood, of her family, and of her performing life. Honky Tonk Girl: A Life in Lyrics is one more way for Lynn's fans--those who already love her and those who soon will--to know the heart and mind of this remarkable woman

Sept 7th 2011:
Lambert received a second nomination along with Sheryl Crow and Country royalty, Loretta Lynn for Musical Event of the Year for their performance of the classic "Coal Miner's Daughter." The song, which tells the story of Lynn's humble beginnings, was nominated for Song of the Year in 1971. The subsequent soundtrack for the movie by the same title won CMA Album of the Year honors in 1980. Lynn, who was CMA's first Female Vocalist of the Year in 1967 and first female Entertainer of the Year in 1972, received her last CMA Awards nomination in 1994 for Musical Event of the Year with Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette for "Silver Thread and Golden Needles."

Legendary Ray Price fills in for Loretta Lynn September 3rd at her Ranch concert in Hurricane Mills, TN. “I love Ray so much. I am very proud to have him play at my Ranch for me. He has had more number 1 hits then all of us put together. I know my fans are going to lovehim and they are in for one heck of a show,” states Lynn.

Lynn who is undergoing reconstructive knee surgery has had to postpone her forth-coming tour dates to recover. For those of you who have purchased a ticket for September 3rd your ticket is valid for Ray Price. For those seeking a refund please contact the Music One ticket office at 512-371-6924. Please visit LorettaLynnRanch.net and LorettaLynn.com for all updated information.

This 2004 album paired the legendary Loretta Lynn with Jack White at the production helm and was met with overwhelmingly glowing praise from fans and critics alike. With all songs penned solely by Lynn, the vibe here is both raw and heartfelt. Van Lear Rose won the 2005 Grammy for Best Country Album and the lead single "Portland, Oregon" won that same year for Best Country Collaboration with vocals.

Mastered directly from the original analog masters, pressed on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl and coupled with a vibrant stoughton tip-on sleeve, the Van Lear Rose LP is one that no collection is complete without.

Written by Craig Shelburne:                           
MANCHESTER, Tenn. -- Loretta Lynn earned a rapturous reception Saturday afternoon (June 11) at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, proving you don't have to be the Next Big Thing to draw an adoring crowd at the eclectic, four-day event southeast of Nashville.

The 76-year-old Country Music Hall of Fame member and her band performed just as the sun was starting to set, with hundreds of fans huddled under an awning known as That Tent. For the first time on a dusty, scorching day, the sun dipped low enough to offer some relief, so music fans could give their undivided attention to one of America's true musical treasures.

After a Buck Owens tune by bandleader Bart Hanson and two songs by her twin daughters, Lynn stepped out with "They Don't Make 'Em Like My Daddy Anymore." If anybody didn't know what they were going to get, she told them in a lively version of "You're Looking at Country."

When you give Lynn a microphone, you never know what she'll say. A few songs in, she wanted to hear more of the band in the monitors, then added, "I might be doing a strip show up here and wouldn't know it!"

Later, after the punchy "Fist City," she observed that a lot of people were drinking soft drinks. Turning to Hanson, she smartly added, "If they want to mix that Coke with something else, that's their business." The audience, of course, was lapping it up.

Lynn invited the audience to holler up their requests, which prompted performances of "I Wanna Be Free," "Here I Am Again," "You Ain't Woman Enough," "Blue Kentucky Girl" and more. Her band plays every song at pretty much the same tempo -- and often faster than the originals -- so it's kind of like a whirlwind primer of her music.

That approach might have actually worked in her favor. Lynn enjoyed her biggest success in the 1970s, before the typical Bonnaroo fan was even born. Amid the mature folks, you could spot the uninitiated fans by their eye-opening expressions when Lynn sang about grabbing a cheating woman by the hair of the head and lifting her off the ground. They especially enjoyed the frankness of "One's on the Way" and "The Pill," meshed into one song.Lynn also took a moment to sing a medley of Patsy Cline songs, including "Walkin' After Midnight," "I Fall to Pieces," "She's Got You" and "Crazy." On the latter track, she must've been inspired by Willie Nelson, who wrote it, because her delivery was just enough off the beat that singing along was pretty tricky.

At the mere mention of Conway Twitty's name, the crowd screamed like crazy -- not exactly what you'd expect at Bonnaroo. Lynn and Hanson sang a sped-up version of "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man," then got part of the way into "Lead Me On" until Lynn sang the last line where the chorus should have been. When the band got temporarily flummoxed, she shrugged it off and told them, "That's it. I'm tired of this song."

Then, Lynn sang the first song she wrote, "Honky Tonk Girl," which was released as her first single in 1960. After the applause, Lynn remarked that she had invited Jack White, who produced her 2004 album, Van Lear Rose, to come onstage with her. This was met with the kind of response you'd get by telling a kindergarten class that Santa Claus was standing in the hallway. However, Lynn added that White stood her up, and if he had been there, he would've already been onstage.

"He can't stand not to sing," she teased, saying that he doesn't even know when to leave the stage so she can play her own show.

Lynn's feisty nature is well-suited to cheatin' and revenge songs like "Your Squaw Is on the Warpath." After she sang that one, she told the audience, "I wrote that about my husband. He never did listen to it, either." As a songwriter, she continued to exhibit her range with the heartbreaking "Dear Uncle Sam" and the defiant "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)." If you've ever argued that modern audiences don't care for the legends, the adoration in this show would have proved you completely wrong.

It's hard to know whether or not she meant to, but Lynn suddenly repeated "You Ain't Woman Enough" in her set list, this time giving the audience a chance to shout the lyrics back to her. And they did -- with fervor.

Lynn took a short break while her harmony singers delivered a few tunes. Then she joined them on a gospel segment, offering "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" (the one about Hezekiah, not the one recorded by Kenny Chesney), "Who Said God Is Dead" and "Where No One Stands Alone."For her benediction, she rendered her signature hit, "Coal Miner's Daughter," and while they probably weren't too many coal miners' daughters' in the audience that day, you'd never know it by the way they sang along. As the show concluded, one young man walked past me, back into the masses. To no one in particular, he exclaimed, "That was awesome!"But if your eyes were on Loretta Lynn, you were lookin' at country.

Except for those present at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in 1967, no one has ever seen the first annual Country Music Awards hosted by Sonny James and Bobbie Gentry.

Indeed, the first telecast of the CMA Awards wouldn't happen until the following year in a grainy, black-and-white debut. But for those in attendance at Tuesday evening's (May 17) Dale Franklin Leadership Awards ceremony at Nashville's Renaissance Hotel, they were given the next best thing -- a glimpse back at country music history.

With a little direction and imagination from the evening's host and five-time CMA Award winner Martina McBride, the night began with a reenactment of the never-before televised '67 awards show.

"The envelope please," McBride said as she began to reveal the names of those nominated for the first CMA female vocalist of the year award. With a dramatic delivery, she said, "And the winner is ... Loretta Lynn!"

To the room's roaring delight, the eight-time CMA Award-winning Lynn appeared onstage to perform her autobiographical and signature song, "Coal Miner's Daughter."
Marking the first time an organization, rather than a few handpicked individuals, has been presented with the honor, a video message followed Lynn's performance detailing the Country Music Association's noteworthy history. Ranging from its 1958 inception to the creation of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the CMA Awards and Fan Fair (now known as the CMA Music Festival), the message also reflected upon the organization's charitable contributions ranging from musical education to last year's most recent flood relief efforts.

People Magazine Asks Dream Coach Paula Chaffee Scardamalia: Why is Country Music Legend Loretta Lynn Appearing Regularly in Rodney Atkins' Dreams?

In the May 2011 Country Special issue of People Magazine, country singer Rodney Atkins asks why country music icon Loretta Lynn keeps showing up in his dream. According to dream coach Paula Chaffee Scardamalia, who uses dreamwork with her clients and teaches it to groups around the country, one of Lynn's roles is as Atkins' Muse, and he needs to be writing down the songs she is singing to him because they have the potential for sales that keep climbing. Loretta Lynn plays several roles in Rodney Atkins' recurring dream,” says dream coach, writer and story muse, Paula Chaffee Scardamalia. In the May Country Special issue of People Magazine, country singer and star, Atkins shares his dream about Loretta Lynn. He is sitting in McDonald’s with Loretta, the Queen of Country, who is singing a song to him. Having no other paper, Atkins records the dream on a napkin, only to wake in the morning, wondering, “Where’s my freaking napkin?”

In the May 2011 Country Special issue of People Magazine, country singer Rodney Atkins asks why country music icon Loretta Lynn keeps showing up in his dream. According to dream coach Paula Chaffee Scardamalia, who uses dreamwork with her clients and teaches it to groups around the country, one of Lynn's roles is as Atkins' Muse, and he needs to be writing down the songs she is singing to him because they have the potential for sales that keep climbing“One of Loretta’s roles here,” says Scardamalia, “is as Rodney’s Muse, inspiring him with the song she sings to him. And she serves as a symbol, both for Atkins style of music—songs for the common man and woman—and for his potential to become, like Lynn herself, a country music icon. But if that is what he wants, then he needs to write down those songs that she sings to him on something other than a dream napkin!”

Scardamalia, who has studied and worked with her own and others dreams for more than 20 years, connected with People Magazine at the International Spa Association media event in New York City last August while doing short ten-minute sessions for journalists, editors, and producers. She was there to introduce the media to dream programs at The Lodge at Woodloch, a destination spa and resort in Hawley, PA. Scardamalia (http://www.diviningthemuse.com) uses dreamwork with her private clients, and also makes special appearances at Woodloch and other destination spas, to offer lectures to guests on how to use dreams as sources for inspiration, problem-solving, and personal insights.

Scardamalia says that dreams have many layers that are revealed over time and that it is important to pay attention to symbols, metaphors, and word puns in dreams.

“What do we think of when we think of MacDonald’s? “ asks Scardamalia. “We don’t just think of fast food. We think of fast food sold in great amounts. Remember those signs on the arches with the number of hamburgers sold? First thousands, then millions, then billions. If Rodney’s dream were my dream, that means the song Loretta is singing to me has the potential for sales that keep climbing. I’d be keeping a journal and a voice recorder by my bed!”

Paula Chaffee Scardamalia, Dream Coach and Story Muse, helps her clients decipher their dreams, discover their personal, creative or business stories, and then deliver them to the world. She is a speaker, writer and the award-winning author of Weaving a Woman's Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom.

Vancouver turns 125 years old later this year, so the Vancouver Heritage Foundation is looking for 125 places deserving of a plaque.

Voting begins Wednesday on the group’s website.

The foundation, a charitable group, solicited online nominations in a program called “Places That Matter.”

Some members of the public tuned in to their inner Chuck Davis – oh, we are so going to miss our avuncular Mr. Vancouver this quasquicentennial year – and suggested all kinds of worthy places.

Parks and bridges, churches and stadiums, even viaducts and corner groceries have been nominated.

One of the more intriguing suggestions is to have a plaque placed on the Granville Mall near Smithe Street to mark the site where the writer William Gibson had the inspiration that led to his coining the word “cyberspace” in his 1984 novel Neuromancer. He had peeked into an arcade, witnessing teenagers playing video games so intently that they were oblivious to their earthly circumstance.

A sports fan can support a plaque at baseball’s Nat Bailey Stadium (where a young Brooks Robinson once impaled his arm on a fence) and Oppenheimer Park (which the storied Asahi team of Japanese-Canadians called home) and the Denman Arena (where the Vancouver Millionaires won the Stanley Cup in 1915).

A music fan can support a plaque at the Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret, 109 E. Hastings St.; or the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park; or the bump-and-grind Penthouse Cabaret, 1019 Seymour St.; or the psychedelic hangout Retinal Circus (earlier Dante’s Inferno) at 1024 Davie St.

Not to mention the supper club hot spots such as Isy’s or the Palomar or The Cave, with its papier-mâché stalactites.

One of the musical suggestions stands out.

Rob Howatson, a magazine writer, nominated the former site of a Fraserview chicken coop behind a bungalow in the 2500 block of Kent Avenue, near Elliott Street.

It is a worthy site for a plaque, for it was an event here that led to the first recording of one of the greatest country music stars of all time.

Yup, Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter from Butcher Holler, Ken., had to come all the way to Vancouver for her big break.

Born into poverty, married at 13, she moved with her husband, whom she called Doolittle but others knew as Mooney for his history of running moonshine. The couple escaped the limits of Appalachia to live in Custer, Wash., a hamlet a few miles south of the border.

On her 18th birthday, by which time she had given birth to four children and suffered two miscarriages, Loretta received from her husband a $17 (U.S.) Harmony guitar from Sears, Roebuck and Co. He had in mind a singing career for his child bride.

Shy, nervous, uncertain as to her abilities and stumped on her first tryout when asked in which key she planned to sing (“I didn’t know what a key was and don’t hardly know now,” she wrote in her 1976 autobiography), Mrs. Lynn began playing small halls and taverns around Whatcom County, earning as much as $5 per session. “I thought I was a millionaire.”

A few years later, she earned a spot as one of 30 amateurs to perform on The Bar-K Jamboree, a live television show hosted by Buck Owens on KTNT (later KSTW) in Tacoma, Wash. Mrs. Lynn won the contest. Her prize was a wristwatch so cheap it broke the next day. But one of those who caught her performance on television up in Vancouver was Norman Burley, a lumber baron.

Mr. Burley’s riches allowed him to dabble in sports (for a time he owned a share of the Vancouver Mounties baseball club with Nat Bailey, the founder of White Spot restaurants) and entertainment (he financed a record label called Zero Records). Mr. Burley invited the singer to come to Vancouver.

“He said he wanted to help us by giving us a contract to make a record,” she wrote in Coal Miner’s Daughter. “He didn’t wear any red suit or black boots, but that man looked like Santa Claus to us.”

She performed at a Fraserview dance hall, named for its previous use. The Chicken Coop was owned by Irene and Clare (Mac) McGregor, according to Mr. Howatson.

Don Grashey and Chuck Williams from the record label heard a voice reminiscent of Kitty Wells and as country as a jug of moonshine. They signed her and sent her to Hollywood to be recorded.

The label printed some 3,500 copies of a 45-rpm with I’m a Honky Tonk Girl and Whispering Sea. She made two other releases for Zero before jumping to Decca and launching the career that would make her a superstar.

Mr. Howatson has spent seven months researching the little-known story of the makeshift dancehall. He is still seeking anecdotes and ephemera and can be reached at [email protected]

A site selection committee formed by the heritage foundation, including former city councillors Gordon Price and Marguerite Ford, will be guided by the public voting, which ends on the city’s birthday on April 6.

If the Chicken Coop doesn’t get a plaque, then there’ll be Trouble in Paradise, as Loretta Lynn will be a Blue Kentucky Girl and the committee will have an appointment in Fist City with a Honky Tonk Girl.

Special to The Globe and Mail

LORETTA LYNN POSTPONES SHOWS MARCH 18TH THROUGH MARCH 29TH

Due to a torn cartilage in her right knee, which is requiring surgery causing Loretta Lynn to postpone her March 18^th through March 29^th tour dates at this time.  Rescheduled dates will be added at a later date.  We thank you for your understanding and patience.  Please check with venues for further information on rescheduled dates.  Thank you.

Hello Friends, just wanted to tell everybody, thank you for all the get well wishes.. My Dr says I have a torn cartilage in my right knee. And they need to fix it, so I had to cancel and reschedule some of my up coming shows.. It ain’t no big deal!! They say I will be in and out of the hospital in a couple hours ! But I won’t be walking so good for a couple weeks! Ya’ll make sure to go on my web site and see when we have the shows for March have been rebooked.. I love all of you and thank you again for your prayers…
Loretta

Saturday, March 19, 2011             

Friday, October 14, 2011

Doors Open 6pm   Showtime 8pm

Premium Reserved Seating- $48

Regular Reserved Seating- $38

Loretta Lynn has postponed a few concerts, due to a torn knee ligament that requires minor surgery.

Venues including Philadelphia's Temple Performing Arts Center and Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club are telling ticket holders that the 78-year-old country legend must reschedule for a later date.

"She regrets disappointing any of her fans, but looks forward to rescheduling her shows as soon as possible," a spokesperson for Loretta tells The Boot
At a concert on March 4 in Buffalo, New York, Loretta told the crowd of her knee pain and asked their permission to continue the show while seated. At one point during her performance, the audience could sense Loretta was steeling herself against the pain, wrote a journalist for the Buffalo News. Loretta held the hand of her son, Ernest Ray, as she got out of the chair to sing a medley of gospel songs before closing the show with 'Coal Miner's Daughter.'

She also took a seat on stage -- after about 15 minutes of standing -- at a recent concert in Greensboro, N.C., according to a journalist at Yes! Weekly, who also reported Loretta told the crowd the shoulder on which she had surgery in 2006 was giving her trouble that night.

Loretta's packed concert schedule, in sickness and in health, is not unusual for the music icon. She performed shows until just a few days before she underwent knee surgery in 2000. And she kept performing in 2009 after a bad bout with the flu, telling Billboard she was "feeling great."

Loretta received many honors last year when she marked her 50th Anniversary in show business, and the accolades keep coming. On April 4, she will be among those honored at 'Girls' Night Out: Superstar Women of Country - the Concert of the Year,' at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

LA TIMES :
What makes this year's Stagecoach lineup particularly tantalizing is the first West Coast appearance in ages by country queen Loretta Lynn, who demonstrated forcefully with her Jack White-produced 2004 album, "Van Lear Rose," that she's still got a few surprises up those puffy ballroom-gown sleeves she adores.

As she celebrates 50 years in the business, Loretta Lynn may be the Queen of Country music, but her influence reaches far beyond Nashville.

One obvious example of this is shown on last year's Lynn tribute CD, "Coal Miner's Daughter," which featured such diverse acts as Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and Jack White.

Cover story"Every one of them did a heck of a job," Lynn said in a telephone interview from her Tennessee home last week. "I was so proud of all of them. I think it's great that they all did this and I sure do appreciate it."

Lynn returns to the Calvin Theatre stage in Northampton on Saturday, where she wowed the audience with a stunning concert in 2007.

Lynn had quite the year in 2010. Along with the tribute album (to which she contributed vocals on some tracks) she also was honored by the Library of Congress by having the song "Coal Miner's Daughter" selected for preservation in its archives, and had a new type of rose named after her: The Loretta Lynn Van Lear Rose.

"It was a real honor to have 'Coal Miner's Daughter' picked like that," she said. "I didn't even realize they did things like that, so I couldn't believe it."

One reason Lynn is so revered by so many artists, particularly women musicians, is that she served as their role model. Before Lynn came along, there weren't a lot of female singer-songwriters, at least not many successful ones

Lynn said that the lack of role models when she started out made things harder than they might have been.

"There were some women singers but they mostly fell by the wayside after one hit," she said. "It was rough when I started, but I just got in and did my best and worked hard. I think writing my own material helped a lot because I wrote from the heart and people liked that."

Lynn said she also never thought she would still be going strong 50 years after she started singing professionally.

"I never imagined it, but I still love doing it," she said. "I enjoy working because I don't overwork, but I have a routine down. I used work a lot more, but now I pick my shows and sometimes I hold up better than anyone else on road."

One reason Lynn may be able to keep her energy at such a high level even while traveling is the improvised nature of her concerts.

Rather than going by a rote, scripted set list, she usually designs her concerts based on audience requests, something that would be daunting for many younger artists. She does it this way out of respect for her audience, she said.

"I let the crowd holler what they want to hear because they paid their way in to see me, and they are going to holler anyway," she said with a laugh. "You still sometimes get tired of singing your own songs but you have to do it, because the people deserve to hear what they want."

• 
  Posted by: Eli George

NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) - The landmark marquee is lit up for a country superstar Thursday night in North Tonawanda. Loretta Lynn has taken the stage at the Riviera Theatre.

The concert was a sellout, and the country music legend didn't disappoint the packed fans in the Riviera.

The coal miner's daughter has 70 albums to her name and 50 years in the music industry. She's a big name for the theatre,

. 

Album review - Loretta Lynn: 50th Anniversary Collection (Wrasse)

  She is the Heart,The Soul and the Very Lungs Of Country 5/5 STARS

Currently looking for special individuals who love being a part of preserving a special collection within a museum celebrating the career of Loretta Lynn.  Ideally, a couple that enjoys life and loves being productive to help with Loretta’s own museum at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee!  This rewarding position includes a wonderful experience to share with fans world wide who come to visit Loretta’s personal home in Middle Tennessee.  This position does include housing within the ranch complex.  For more information, contact  [email protected]

By Maude Kusserow

"Someone once asked me 'where did a lady like you learn to talk like that?' and I told him 'I'm from Kentucky.'"

Loretta Lynn was a vision in white chiffon; every inch of her floor-length ball gown sparkled and her hair was piled high on her head. As she took the stage, there was a nanosecond of silence before the packed audience inside the Louisville Palace stampeded into a cacophony of applause. Some stood in their seats while others rushed into the aisles, animated and bursting to welcome Kentucky's "Coal Miner's Daughter."

Loretta Lynn was born in 1932 in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, the second of eight children. Her father struggled to make a living as a coal miner during the Depression, and though there was barely ever any money, "we got new shoes once a year and wore'em thin until next year when we got ourselves another new pair."

Lynn married her childhood love at thirteen years old, and before the age of nineteen had four children. Her famously controversial song "The Pill," which was released in the seventies, demonstrates the type of songwriter Lynn is. "There's gonna be some changes made/right here on this nursery hill/you've set this chicken for the last time/since I've got the pill." Her musical career rocketed in 1960 when she signed her first contract with Zero Records. From there, the self-taught guitarist took on title of "Queen of Country," releasing hits that embraced her roots and upbringing, such as "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" and "Blue-Eyed Kentucky Girl." Her single "Don't Come Home Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)" went to number-one subsequently, making Lynn one of the first female country singers to sell 500,000 records.

Part of Lynn's overwhelming popularity doesn't have a lot to do with her musical abilities but is instead attributed to the quick whit and the sharp tongue of a no no-nonsense, take charge, strong and fiercely independent woman. Her songs often reflect her infamously turbulent marriage to her husband Doolittle, who cheated frequently and once left her while she was giving birth to their third child.

Yet despite the hardships she faced in her life, there is never a tone of self-pity or defeat in her music. At Friday's concert, she sang "Fist City," in which she croons "I'm not sayin' my baby's a saint 'cause he ain't/N' that he wont cat around with a kitty/I'm here to tell ya gal to lay offa my man/If you don't wanna go to fist city." Lynn turned to the audience and growled into the microphone, "Girls, when you gotta fight a hussy for your man, you just make sure you get the first lick [punch] in because there might not be a second one," to which the audience erupted in applause.
Tough-girl persona aside, Lynn knows how to embrace her vulnerability and expresses the struggles she has faced. She sings about her husband in the slow, haunting song, "When the Tingle Becomes a Chill" and indicates her ceaseless love for her father in "They Don't Make Them Like My Daddy Anymore." Her blunt honesty and out-of-this-world songwriting abilities have made Loretta Lynn a country music superstar.

At 78 years old, she continues to rock out on stage and produce gut-wrenching, chills-up-and-down-your-arms songs that bring people from all ages, areas and social arenas to her concerts. With four Grammys, seven American Music Awards, ten Academy of Country Music Awards, 160 songs and 70 albums-ten of which reached number one on the music charts-Loretta Lynn is a country music goddess. And if you'd like to debate her on that, she may just take you out back for a lickin'.

By: American Songwriter

“That’s the country-est album I’ve ever done,” says Loretta Lynn in our Legends interview about 2004’s Van Lear Rose, the album she made with producer Jack White. “I told [Jack] that and he said, ‘Well, thank you.’ And he’s not a country guy, he’s rock and roll. But when my movie came out, he was nine years old and he said, ‘I sat in the theater and watched it all day long.’ It just kept coming back on and he kept watching it. He’s a good guy, Jack White is.”

For the album, which went up for several Grammys and took home a few, Lynn worked with the core band of guitarist Jack White, drummer Patrick Keeler, bassist Jack Lawrence, and pedal steel guitarist Dave Feeney, all of whom appear in the video for the song (below). The Midwest rock crew turn “Portland, Oregon” into a bluesy romp, with heavy accents balanced by a slow-building instrumental intro. “I didn’t know [Jack] was gonna sing with me on ‘Portland, Oregon,’” says Lynn. “I walked in the studio and I said, ‘Who is that man singing it with me, Jack?’ and he said, ‘That’s me.’ I like Jack. Anything he did I thought was cool.”

The song weaves a classic country tale – girl meets boy in a bar, drinks ensue, the rest is history. One of the song’s main characters – the sloe gin fizz – would be more likely to pop up at the Roosevelt Hotel in 1930s New Orleans than in a honky tonk in Oregon – not to mention the fact that it would be served in a highball glass, not by the pitcher. But, Lynn is plenty convincing all the same, transforming hipster Portland, Oregon to suit her taste. The song seems like it could be based on something Lynn observed of her audience’s antics – much like “You Ain’t Woman Enough For My Man” was inspired by a young woman telling Lynn about her marital troubles backstage one night. But, like any good country song, “Portland, Oregon” doesn’t give away all its secrets and may just be pure fantasy. “When I write a song, the melody just comes in my mind to fit that song,” says Lynn. “And if it’s a slow tempo, I think of a slow melody to get in that mood. I let the song come to me. I just gotta get by myself and get that song. And if it don’t come easy, I lay it down. And sometimes I’ll pick it up, and sometimes I won’t ever go back to it.” “Portland, Oregon” won a Grammy in 2005 for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals. In the video for the song, White, aged 28 at the time, leans over and kisses the 70-year-old Lynn. If that ain’t love, then tell me what is. – DAVIS INMAN

“Portland, Oregon”

Well Portland, Oregon and sloe gin fizz
If that ain’t love then tell me what is
Well I lost my heart it didn’t take no time
But that ain’t all – I lost my mind in Oregon

In a booth in the corner with the lights down low
I was movin’ in fast, she was takin’ it slow
Well I looked at him and caught him lookin’ at me
I knew right then we were playin’ free in Oregon

Next day we knew last night got drunk
But we loved enough for the both of us
In the morning when the night had sobered up
It was much too late for the both of us in Oregon

Well sloe gin fizz works might fast
When you drink it by the pitcher and not by the glass
Hey bartender before you close
Pour us one more drink and a pitcher to go

And a pitcher to go…

Written by Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn. This year, Wanda Jackson has gotten the Jack White career-makeover treatment. In 2004, it was Loretta Lynn, the tough-as-nails country great who became known to hipsters through Van Lear Rose, produced by White. Here's a rare opportunity to see Lynn, the 78-year-old all-time country great, within the big-city limits. (March 18, the Temple Performing Arts Center.)

 

• story Alex Frank
  

Hey Best Coast, your recent and beautiful update of Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City” sounded fresh. Could’ve been one of your own, tucked in between songs about heartbreak and weed. You’ve reminded us just how 2K11 so many of Lynn’s 1960s sentiments are. Half her songs are about fighting, really brutal, too. The other half: drinking. Hello rap. Those two subjects have helped define modern hip-hop, conceits that inspire mix tapes and scrapes. Loretta would hold her own, wouldn’t flinch from Lil Kim’s hate. Nicki: listen up. Loretta’s dress in the following performance of the song is time machine Nicki Minaj, a sparkle perfect for Barbs if she were playing the Grand Ole Opry in a different era. Can we give Loretta Lynn the tiara for world’s first female rapper? Check out a video of her performance of “Fist City” and Best Coast’s cover after the jump.

By: Jeffery Lee Puckett
Loretta Lynn left Kentucky in 1949, moving cross-country from Johnson County to Washington state as a 14-year-old bride who was used to hard living and prepared for it to stay that way Her husband, Doolittle, traded coal mining for logging, and they had the first of six children. She also began writing songs, working on a verse or two between canning vegetables and raising a family. Her life eventually took a far different path than she had expected, one that led to the Country Music Hall of Fame. But in many ways, her life was no less hard.

Lynn has never again lived in Kentucky, but she, perhaps more than any other homegrown artist, is forever entwined with the hills and hollers of the Bluegrass State. When her song “Coal Miner's Daughter” came out, she even inspired a name change for her birthplace, as Webb Hollow officially became Butcher Hollow.

“Me and Doo went back and stayed some when we was in Washington,” she said, calling from her ranch in Tennessee. “We'd stay a couple, three months at a time, but I haven't lived there and I do miss old Kentucky. I really do.

“I want me and Crystal and my other two sisters to go spend a week or two up in that holler, just stay in the old house, cook and build pallets on the floor and just have a good time. We're planning on doing that some time.”

Kentucky's rich history of music has included more than a few important artists — Bill Monroe, Lionel Hampton, The Everly Brothers, Merle Travis, Rosemary Clooney — with a collective impact as substantial as it is revered.

But perhaps none is as beloved as Lynn, who rose from the hollers of Van Lear in Johnson County to become an icon of country music and a symbol of the hard-scrabble land where she was born.

Now 76, Lynn is enjoying a career resurgence. Last year, she celebrated her 50th anniversary in music by accepting a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, putting out a new edition of her “Coal Miner's Daughter” autobiography, and even had a rose invented for her. The Loretta Lynn Van Lear will make its debut at her Tennessee ranch this spring.On Friday, Lynn returns home for a show at the Louisville Palace, about six months after her performance at the HullabaLOU Music Festival. That show took place in blistering midday heat that was sorely testing 28-year-olds, but Lynn has survived worse.She was born into poverty. Doolittle, who died in 1996, had a famously roving eye for all 48 years of their marriage. A son, Jack Benny, drowned at age 34. She was on the road for much of her children's upbringing; the stress caused such bad migraines that sometimes she'd pass out on stage.

And yet this year she's planning on releasing at least two albums, including her first collection of new songs since her 2004 comeback record, “Van Lear Rose,” made with The White Stripes' Jack White. She and John Carter Cash have recorded more than 60 songs, enough for four albums, and she has added quite a few more shows to her touring schedule.

“I just took a notion to work,” she said. “I didn't do that much last year so I just thought I'd work this year like I used to, and I think I can do it, too. To tell you the truth, I think I hold up better than the younger girls because they just ain't into it like we were. You have to be able to work and forget about how hard it is, but I've always been used to working and it's never bothered me that much.

“I was telling my little granddaughter that I left behind 3,000 quarts of canned stuff when I left Washington state, and that was the hardest thing I've ever done was leaving all that. That was a lot of work.”

Lynn said that her new songs all touch on aspects of her life. She agreed that young music fans keep seeking her out because of the honesty of songs such as “Fist City,” “You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” and “When The Tingle Becomes A Chill.”

“You know, it's everyday life. They're all living it, and really, when I wrote these songs I thought I was just writing about how I lived,” she said. “I had never thought anybody else had ever lived like me, and my songs tell the story. ‘Fist City' and ‘You Ain't Woman Enough' — them women out there love 'em.”Lynn was among the first women to become a major country star, following the path blazed by Kitty Wells, and she was a force on country radio for most of the 1960s, '70s and early '80s. She was the first woman to win the Country Music Association's entertainer of the year award, and several of her hits broke barriers in Nashville. “The Pill” and “Rated X” addressed a woman's rights, for example, and “Dear Uncle Sam” was an anti-war song released as Vietnam was heating upHer popularity peaked with the 1969 release of “Coal Miner's Daughter.” A hit autobiography in 1976 had the same title, as did the 1980 film starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones.

“You know, I had six other verses to ‘Coal Miner's Daughter' and Owen Bradley, my producer at the time, said ‘Loretta, get in that room and take off six of them verses. There's already been one ‘El Paso' and there'll never be another.'

“I thought it was just a song about my life, and he never thought it'd be a hit. So I took six verses off and you know I never have found them six verses. I must have left them in the studio. I may have to add a couple more verses and do that thing again.”As country music grew more pop in the 1980s, Lynn's star faded, and she spent much of the 1990s caring for an ailing Doolittle and expanding Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. After Doolittle's death she fell into a depression that was only lifted when she began touring, and visiting fans old and new remains one of her favorite things. Her shows are 90 minutes of hits, and Lynn never fails to sing the songs that lifted her out of poverty.“I do” enjoy touring, she said, “and if I didn't I wouldn't do it. I'd just hang it up, but you know we turn them away just about everywhere we go … so what are you gonna do? They still come out. I'll work as long as I want to, let's just say it that way.“

 

By Paul Zollo:

Some people are just born with it. With the gift for writing songs. Songs come to them, and they just need to write them down. It doesn’t take any agony or even much thought, it just takes time with a guitar alone to capture them as they fly by. That’s the case with Loretta Lynn. Right out of the gate, she wrote songs richer and deeper than the finest songs emerging out of Nashville. And she sang them with robust bravado, this little girl “dressed up like Annie Oakley,” and ascended swiftly to Nashville royalty as one of country music’s greatest singers and songwriters.

Born in 1932 in Kentucky, she married her beloved Doolittle (Oliver Vanetta Lynn) when she was only 13, and had four of her six kids before she was an adult. He gave her a guitar for her 24th birthday, and she started playing and singing as if she’d done it her whole life. Her first two songs, “Whispering Sea” and “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl” were also the twin sides of her first single. And when people heard that voice with those songs, songs that reflected country life as it was really lived, they fell in love.

After those two, the songs kept coming. When the Nashville crowd first heard her music, they were stunned. Roy Acuff said he couldn’t fathom how she could write such astounding songs – “every one a little movie” – after never writing before. Gradually she created a bounty of work, a deep well of country music splendor from which singers have drawn for years. A new tribute album, Coal Miner’s Daughter, A Tribute to Loretta Lynn, has just been released, featuring Steve Earle, The White Stripes, Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock, Lucinda Williams and others, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of her debut.

Lynn attributes it all to telling the truth. But sometimes the truth wasn’t what the good ol’ boys in Nashville wanted to hear, because it reflected too closely the reality of the changes America went through in the ‘60s, such as “The Pill” and “Rated X,” both of which were promptly banned from radio, and both which went to Number 1, sparked by controversy.

Today she’s home in her sun-dappled writing room, tending, as she often must, to the business of being Loretta Lynn. But as anyone who knows her will attest, she is no diva, quite the opposite. When told that it’s an honor for this writer to interview her, she just laughs, and says, “Honey, don’t say that. You can interview me anytime.”

You once said you would rather be remembered as a songwriter than a singer.

I would. Way before I started singing, I was trying to write. I lived out in the state of Washington and I had my four babies out there. I was trying to write everyday and I didn’t know how. So I looked at the songbooks and thought that anyone could do that, so I just started writing. “Whispering Sea” was my first song and then “Honky Tonk Girl” was my second song.

Did songwriting come easy to you?

Yes. When I started writing, my husband was out on the ocean fishing, and I wrote “Whispering Sea.” “Whispering sea, roll on by, don’t you listen to me cry.”

“Honky Tonk Girl” came from a lady who kept coming into the little club. Doo got me a job working for five dollars on Saturday nights, a little club. She came every time I worked. She told me that her husband had left her for another woman. She’d sit there and cry. She picked strawberries with me during the time when strawberries were ripe. And when strawberry picking was over, she kept coming to the club and crying. And I wrote “Honky Tonk Girl” from that.

So you have an idea first before you start writing?

Yes. I had to have a real reason to write a song. I wrote them about true things. And I just kind of kept that up. I’d write the words by thinking and watching.

Do you write a whole lyric before the music?

No, I start the music on guitar with the first two or three lines.

Many of your songs are in odd keys, not normal guitar keys. “Honky Tonk Girl” is in C#.

Yeah, I know it. I don’t know why. They told me in Nashville they couldn’t believe it, what you’re writing! All your keys are funny. ‘Cause they wrote D, G and A, you know. I was going out on a limb a little bit, but I didn’t realize that. I started playing rhythm guitar with my brother and a steel player when I first started singing. And I played barre chord rhythm. I had all sorts of notes on the guitar at that time, now I probably wouldn’t remember all of them.

Since I learned all the keys, I just thought everybody did it that way. And evidently I was different. I was so far away from country music. I was a long way from Nashville, Tennessee.

I never knew another songwriter until I came to Nashville and met Harlan Howard. And he said, “Who in the heck taught you to play rhythm guitar like that?” I said, “I taught myself.” He said, “I can’t believe you’re the writer you are and taught yourself to play rhythm guitar like that.” But I did.

How old were you when you started playing?

24. Well, I had four kids, one right after the other. And when all four kids were in school, I started writing. My husband got me a job making $5 on a Saturday night and I thought I was gonna get rich. I saved my money up and bought me a black skirt with fringe, and these cowboy boots – they were $14 – and, well, I looked like Annie Oakley. I didn’t know that people didn’t look like that. I come to Nashville and I’m the only one who walked in looking like a country singer, with my boots and my guitar round my neck, I’ve come to sing.

When I first started singing, although I was writing songs, I did other people’s songs, like “I Walked Away From The Wreck.” Owen Bradley told me, “You start doing your own stuff.” But I was afraid they wouldn’t go over. I put out records, but they didn’t do nothing until I started doing my own songs. And they went to Number 1. I was hitting home with them, I guess, with the honky tonk music.

Your songs are so rich in detail. Did that come naturally to you?

Yeah, it just come naturally. I think anyone could do it. I think a lot of people try to write songs that are a little out of reach. And they should just sit down and write what they know. And what they see.

“Coal Miner’s Daughter” is such a vivid picture of your childhood.

I had more verses. Owen Bradley said, “Loretta, there’s already been one ‘El Paso’ and we’ll never have another one. Get in that room and start taking some of those verses off.” Yeah, I took six verses off.

Six? It has four we know, so it had 10 verses altogether?

Yeah, I had a whole story going. I wished I’d never thrown them away. If I’d kept them, I could record them now and put them back in the song.

You don’t remember them at all?

No, but I should sit down and start rewriting on that song, and come up with some more verses. I threw them away and I should never have done that.

It’s amazing to think of you writing a song like that so easily – not only is it richly detailed, but you have great craft in there, like rhyming Butcher Holler with “poor man’s dollar.”

Well, that was the truth. Everything that I put in that song was true. I lived all of it. I’ve lived a lot of stuff that I wrote. Of course Doo, my husband, wouldn’t have wanted to heard that. But I did. I never had to lie about anything I was writing about. That was my problem. I didn’t lie. And sometimes Owen would say, “I don’t know whether you should put that out there now. Doo might divorce you.” And I’d say, “Let him divorce me, it’s the truth.”

And he never did.

No, he never did. He knew they were true.

Would you always play new songs for him?

Oh yeah. I let him hear it first.

Was he honest in his response?

Yeah, he never denied any of it. He was always honest. If he liked it, he liked it. If he didn’t, he’d say, “I don’t think that’s so good.” And I’d throw it away and start again.

Were you there when they shot the movie about your life, Coal Miner’s Daughter?

I’d seen some of it. I would fly into a place if Sissy [Spacek] needed me. Sometimes they’d call me and say, “Loretta, can you fly in? She’s been crying all day.” I’d fly in and there’d be part of the movie that bothered her, and she’d be crying, and I’d try to shut her up. I’d say, “I’m here, why are you crying?”

But she did such a good job. For the first year, I was doing two shows a night. And I’d bring her onstage. I took her on the Opry with me four times before the movie started. It was so hard on me, but we made it.

What inspired “You Ain’t Woman Enough For My Man”?

“You Ain’t Woman Enough” come to me when a little girl come back stage and said her husband didn’t bring her to the show, he brought his girlfriend. This was before the show started, and she wanted me to look out the curtain and see what this girl looked like. I peaked out and there she was, painted up like you wouldn’t believe. I looked round at the little girl that was talking to me. And she didn’t have no makeup at all. And I said, “Honey, she ain’t woman enough to take your man.”

I went right straight to my dressing room and wrote it in ten minutes. Ten minutes and a lot of money I made on that song. A lot of people have recorded it.

Is writing a song in ten minutes unusual for you?

Sometimes they work, and sometimes they just won’t. Sometimes you get hung up on them. When that happens, you just throw it back, and maybe come back to it two or three weeks later.

Some of your songs were quite controversial, and even banned, such as “The Pill,” about birth control.

Oh yeah. “The Pill.” Also “One’s On The Way.” They started hollering about some of the songs and banned them from the radio. But immediately, when people would hear they’d been banned from the radio, they’d hit Number 1 in a hurry. And then [radio] would have to play them. If they had listeners, they’d have to play the one that was banned.

Did you enjoy making the album Van Lear Rose with Jack White?

That’s the country-est album I’ve ever done. I told [Jack] that and he said, “Well, thank you.” And he’s not a country guy, he’s rock and roll. But when my movie came out, he was nine years old and he said, “I sat in the theater and watched it all day long.” It just kept coming back on and he kept watching it. He’s a good guy, Jack White is.

I didn’t know he was gonna sing with me on “Portland, Oregon.” I walked in the studio and I said, “Who is that man singing it with me, Jack?” and he said, “That’s me.” I like Jack. Anything he did I thought was cool.

Do you write the music for a song before you finish the words?

Yes. I write the melody as soon as I finish the first verse. It’s got to fit the song. If it don’t fit the song, I don’t think it’ll come easy. But I think if it comes easy, then the melody is gonna be okay.

How do you create melodies yourself?

When I write a song, the melody just comes in my mind to fit that song. And if it’s a slow tempo, I think of a slow melody to get in that mood. I let the song come to me. I just gotta get by myself and get that song. And if it don’t come easy, I lay it down. And sometimes I’ll pick it up, and sometimes I won’t ever go back to it.

Can you write at any time of day?

Night is best.

When you come up with an idea, do you always write it down right away?

If I don’t, I’ll never remember it. I’ve got to write it down right then, or I’ll lose it.

Do you remember writing “Miss Being Mrs.”?

Oh yeah. You know, that just came, to be truthful with you, from one of those things where I just thought, “I miss being Mrs. tonight.” When you’re not married anymore – which I’m not, my husband passed away 14 years ago – naturally, you’re gonna feel that way. And you just miss being Mrs.

You’re good with wordplay like that. Like in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” when you say “I remember well the well where I drew water.” A beautiful use of language.

Well, when I thought of that I felt it was a good line to use. And then I got to thinking maybe nobody will really understand that line, so maybe I shouldn’t use it. But I let it go anyway and thought, yeah, I’m gonna use it.

And we understand.

You knew it was good, didn’t you? Well, bless your heart. Boy, I’ve drawn a lot of water out of that old well back in Kentucky. That was my job. To go and get the water.

Do you remember writing “Rated X”?

Yeah, that was about a married woman. Things didn’t work out and she was divorced. I probably sat down and talked to her. She told me the story and I just wrote it.

I love your song “Van Lear Rose.”

I had to talk about Mommy in there. She had the biggest bluest eyes I ever seen. She was a beautiful woman. I remember back when she was 32, 33 years old. Mommy was so beautiful. I always wanted to be as beautiful as Mommy. Never made it. She had long black hair, beautiful blue eyes and a dark complexion. She was Indian and Irish. My father was Indian and Irish. And the Irish have great personalities you know. And most of them sing. People from Ireland, you know, they come into this country singing. There’s a couple of them in Branson right now singing. And Indians are in touch with nature. That’s me. I wrote about things that have happened. I probably took after the Indian part on that.

Do you remember writing “You’re Looking At Country?”

Yeah. I remember we came home. We’ve got about 12 or 1300 acres. I was out riding around and I looked over towards the field. Doo and Hattie all planted some corn, and I thought, “Now you’re looking at country.” And immediately I come into the house and went to the writing room and wrote it.

Are there songs you start that you can’t finish?

Oh yeah. I’ve had a lot of them. I don’t know why I don’t go back and finish them. I just kind of quit writing. I haven’t written a song in a long time.

Why?

Lazy. But I’m gonna get back to it.

You’ve written so many classics that you have nothing left to prove.

True, I don’t have a thing to prove, but if I write, I’m gonna prove something. Don’t do anything that you can’t do best. I don’t believe in doing something that I don’t know is good. If I go back to writing, I bet there will be a good song out of it. If I write ten songs, there will be three good ones out of it. I won’t dedicate my life to something that’s not good.

What advice would you give songwriters?

Write about the truth. If you write about the truth, somebody’s living that. Not just somebody, there’s a lot of people.

EILEN JEWELL "Butcher Holler: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn"

Kindred spirits: Loretta Lynn, Lucinda Williams, Patsy Cline

Show: Friday at Iota. Show starts at 9 p.m. 703-522-8340. www.iotaclubandcafe.com . $15.

Folk-country singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell goes all-out twang on "Butcher Holler: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn," a collection of a dozen songs by the coal miner's daughter re-recorded by Jewell and her three-piece backing band.

The album - named for Lynn's Kentucky hometown - isn't just a greatest-hits revue. Instead, Jewell pays tribute to Lynn's songwriting by selecting tunes that Lynn wrote herself. Even more impressive than Lynn's authorship, though, are the topics she tackled. Such subjects as adultery ("Another Man Loved Me Last Night") and rebounding with a stranger ("A Man I Hardly Know") may seem commonplace today, but they weren't exactly acceptable topics in the 1960s and '70s - especially sung from a woman's perspective.

Wisely, Jewell does little to reinterpret these songs. Her delivery is laid-back and her voice is sweet, but even that calm demeanor can't belie the strength and independence in these songs, from the sassy "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (with Lovin' on Your Mind)" to the threatened revenge in "Fist City." The Loretta Lynn that Eilen Jewell channels may sound sweet, but she packs a powerful punch.

- Catherine P. Lewis

MIAMI, Okla. — For more than 50 years, America’s most famous coal miner’s daughter has been adored by her fans. While many music artists receive adoration thanks to 24-hour entertainment web sites and videos on You Tube, country singer Loretta Lynn has done it the old-fashioned way.

During a bus tour of the East Coast, Lynn was found by a local reporter scribbling out autographs to her fans.

When asked her why she took so much time to sign autographs with at least 100 more waiting patiently in line, Lynn just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“These people are my fans,” she said. “I’ll stay here until the very last one wants my autograph. Without these people, I am nobody; I love these people.”

Lynn, who became one of the first female country artists to reach sales exceeding 500,000 with her 1967 song, “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind), will be performing live tonight at Buffalo Run Casino.

Lynn isn’t just a pretty voice. In many ways she’s both a country musical trendsetter and maverick. Her first self-penned song to crack the Top 10, 1966’s “Dear Uncle Sam,” was among the very first recordings to recount the human costs of the Vietnam War.

Beginning with 1966’s No. 2 hit “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” Lynn began writing songs with a feminist viewpoint, which was unheard of in country music at the time. Other similar songs followed, such as “Fist City,” “What Kind of a Girl (Do You Think I Am)” and “To Make a Man (Feel Like a Man).”

In 1973, her song “Rated X” peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Chart, and was considered one of Lynn’s most controversial hits. Two years later, “The Pill” was the first song to discuss birth control.

Despite the mature nature of many of her songs, they failed to drive fans away. The opposite, in fact, occurred. Lynn’s openness and honesty drew fans from around the nation, including some who didn’t consider themselves country music fans.

It was Lynn’s 1970 song, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” that elevated Lynn even further into stardom.

The song -- still Lynn’s most popular -- told of her life from poverty to fame, growing up as she did in rural Butcher Hollow, Ky., and marrying her husband at the age of 13.

The song launched a best-selling biography in 1976 and an Oscar-winning movie, starring Sissy Spacek, in 1980.

  .

Lynn’s life has more than its share of gothic turns, and the singer swears her recent comeback began when she heard the voice of her dead husband telling her to get out of bed. Known for her floor-length gowns and poor family-planning, she may not seem like the portrait of a modern woman. But at a time when country music was still a boys’ club, Lynn converted her personal history into chart-bursting hits that ranged from classic three-chord honky-tonk (“Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ with Lovin’ on Your Mind”) to controversial anthems of social change (“The Pill”).

In one of her best-known songs, Lynn, who was born during the Great Depression and who won a Best Country Album in 2004 for the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose, declares, “When you’re looking at me, you’re looking at country,” which, while true, doesn’t go quite far enough. You’re also looking at history. — Chris Davis

To celebrate the release of the multi-artist tribute album Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn on November 9^th, Sony Music Nashville presented country music legend Loretta Lynn with her very own rose. The first “Loretta Lynn Van Lear” rose plants – named after the artist’s GRAMMY® Award-winning album Van Lear Rose - will be delivered to the artist’s ranch in the spring of 2011, with more available for purchase shortly after.

“Roses have always been so special to me – I’ve loved them since I was a girl,” said Loretta. “So to have a rose named after one of my albums . . . well, I’m not sure I quite have the words for that! I’m just very, very honored. I can’t wait to have those Van Lear roses blooming in my yard!” she added.

Developed by Brad Jalbert of Select Roses, the “Loretta Lynn Van Lear” classes as a floribunda, an ever-blooming hybrid known for its deep color. The bloom’s hue is described as a rich apricot, and the buds on the rose open into a “cottage” style flower. The plant is bushy and dense, growing to about 2 feet, considered an ideal size for most gardens or large containers.

“This is one of those roses that has turned out to be a crowd favorite at the nursery!” said Jalbert. “It is a very charming rose that all our customers have noticed when the test plants were on display.”

Both country music fans and rose enthusiasts will need to practice patience when trying to secure a “Loretta Lynn Van Lear” rose bush of their own: “We are just now building up stock of this rose,  and will have a few plants available spring 2010 for our local customers here in British Columbia, with more being available in coming years,” said Jalbert. “However, there will be a Canadian company, who ships to the US, who will have plants for mail order by the fall of 2011.”

Luckily, a new homage to one of country’s true musical pioneers is available now. Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn has garnered an impressive collection of critical praise. Rolling Stone referred to the project as “a tribute to the toughest Nashville queen ever, this record has a steely spine,” while the Los Angeles Times commented that “the broad reach of Loretta Lynn’s influence is immediately evident in this salute…one of country’s true legends gets a consistently heartfelt tip of the hat from a representative swath of the countless lives her music has touched.” “Loretta Lynn writes songs that knock you on your head and off your feet,” The Washington Post noted. “For 50-plus years, [Lynn] has stamped the country charts with her tunes of trouble, turmoil, payback and sweet satisfaction. And on this perfectly rough-around-the- edges tribute album, a host of like-minded musicians — country and otherwise — join in the fun and fury.”

2010 was a year of tributes and acknowledgements for this country music legend, as it marked the 50^th anniversary of Loretta Lynn’s chart debut in 1960. In January, Loretta was presented with the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her legacy and career achievements. In June, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was one of only 25 sound recordings chosen in 2010 for preservation within the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which annually honors a select group of recordings for their cultural, historic, or aesthetic significance. Then in October, The Recording Academy hosted GRAMMY Salute to Country Music, celebrating Loretta at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium with a star-studded tribute concert. At the concert, Loretta was presented with the President’s Merit Award, honoring her cultural influence and contributions to country music.