Loretta Lynns 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, its
never too late I am inviting everyone to my ranch to have a great ole
Gospel time! Itll 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 Miners 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. Thats All Ive 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 Williams 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 didnt stop her from telling them that she is theirs and Lorettas #1 fan.
It was most recently announced at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, this past May that Lorettas 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 Miners 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; Lynns 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 cant 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 Dont Make Em Like My Daddy Anymore and Youre 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 Aint Woman Enough, I Wanna Be Free, Fist City, Ones On The Way and Dont 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 Miners Daughter Museum. Lorettas 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 Shes 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 Miners Daughter closed out the 2 hour show.
Set List:
1. They Dont Make Em Like My Daddy Anymore
2. Youre Lookin At Country
3. When A Tingle Becomes A Chill
4. I Wanna Be Free
5. Here I Am Again
6. Fist City
7. Shes Got You
8. Crazy
9. Lead Me On
10. Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
11. Ones On The Way
12. The Pill
13. Dont 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 Miners Daughter
By the time the chorus comes around, you can usually tell if itâs a Loretta Lynn song. The iconic country singer is famous for threatening to send a rival to âFist Cityâ if she didnât âdetour around my town.â To another would-be homewrecker, she once boasted, âYou ainât woman enough to take my man.â Lynn has also sung about social issues weâre debating to this day, from birth control (âThe Pillâ) to the results of not taking it (âOneâs on the Wayâ).
This is clear: Loretta Lynn, whoâs still a spitfire at 76, suffers no fools.
Born a coal minerâs daughter, âin a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler,â as her signature song goes, Lynn has just written a new book. âHonky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyricsâ is an overdue salute to Lynnâs 50-plus years of songwriting, with a reverent foreword by Elvis Costello.
Set for release on Tuesday, the book presents Lynnâs lyrics alongside her anecdotes about writing them. Itâs also sprinkled with passages about musicians who have inspired her â from Kitty Wells to Jack White, who produced Lynnâs Grammy-winning 2004 album, âVan Lear Roseâ â 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 DylanQ. Early in the book, you outline your approach to writing: âFor me, I could and can only write what Iâve lived.â 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 [âIâm a Honky Tonk Girl,â 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, âWe donât have anybody that can write for you,â and I thought, âGod, whatâs wrong with me?â (Laughs.)
Q. Would you have been as successful if you hadnât written your own songs?
A. No. Iâve 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 youâre 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 donât 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 youâve got a good song on your hands?
A. Well, I think singers â Iâm not going to say all of them, because I hear some of them come out with the crummiest stuff â I think most people that really write know when theyâve got a good song. Me and Shawn Camp have been writing together. Heâs one of the greatest little songwriters going right now. Heâs kind of a bluegrass singer, but he can write any type of song.
Q. Was a song like âDear Uncle Sam,â 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, âI am so sick of war. I donât like war. I canât take it.ââ He said, âWell, why donât you just write about it?ââ 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 weâve 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 theyâre 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, Iâm gonna write it. You may never know why, but Iâm going to write it.
Q. I was astonished to learn in the book that âCoal Minerâs Daughterâ originally had eight more verses.
A. Yes. [My producer] Owen Bradley said, âLoretta, you take some of them verses off. Thereâs already been one âEl Paso,â and there will never be another.â Remember, âEl Pasoâ [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 donât remember now what they were.
Q. You just broke my heart.
A. (Laughs.) Well, listen, if Iâm ever going to put those verses back together, Iâll send you a copy. Youâll 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. Thatâs 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 havenât got to meet him yet.
Q. Really? Should I make some calls for you?
A. Youâre gonna have to. I need to meet that boy. I saw him the other day singing somewhere. Itâs so funny to watch him sing. Have you noticed that? (Adopts a prim accent and sings): âThe answer my friend/Is blowinâ in the wind.â (Laughs.)
Q. What do you like about Dylanâs songs?
A. Well, you canât beat that song, can you? I love that song. And Bob just knows how to put a song together. Iâm not gonna say that he knows how to sing them. Iâm just gonna say he knows how to put them together. (Laughs.) To watch him sing is the funniest thing Iâve ever seen. Iâm a big fan of his.
Q. Iâm sure heâs a fan of yours, too.
A. I donât know if heâs ever heard of me, you know.
Q. I guarantee you youâre wrong.
A. Well, I hope so. (Laughs.)
Q. The book ends with lyrics for several unreleased songs. Does that mean youâve got a new album coming soon?
A. Yes. Iâve got a new Christmas album coming out. Iâve got a new religious album cut. And Iâve got another album cut of some of the biggest hits that I ever wrote for Decca and you canât find anymore. I rerecorded them.
Q. I hear youâve 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. Iâm singing âThe Roseâ with him.
Q. The Bette Midler hit?
A. No, âEvery Rose Has Its Thorn.â
Q. Oh, wow. Thatâs a surprise. And youâre also working with Elvis Costello?
A. Yes. Heâs 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 heâs 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 hadnât changed a lick. His hair is still the same. Jack looks the same.
Q. When you think back on all the songs youâve 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 wroteLynn 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.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) â Loretta Lynn has been sidelined by knee surgery.
A statement says the country music icon will cancel dates through a Sept. 3 show at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.
She is scheduled to undergo reconstructive knee surgery and needs time to recover. Lynn says in the statement she's "sad" to cancel the shows, "but they tell me I've just got to stay off this knee for a while."
Lynn recently returned to live performances with a show at the Grand Ole Opry after being forced to cancel shows in Ohio and Connecticut because she was hospitalized for heat exhaustion. The 76-year-old Country Music Hall of Fame member said she had spent too much time in her garden in extreme heat.
Lynn will try to reschedule her missed dates.
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 climbingOne of Lorettas roles here, says Scardamalia, is as Rodneys Muse, inspiring him with the song she sings to him. And she serves as a symbol, both for Atkins style of musicsongs for the common man and womanand 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 MacDonalds? asks Scardamalia. We dont 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 Rodneys dream were my dream, that means the song Loretta is singing to me has the potential for sales that keep climbing. Id 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 groups 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 baseballs 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 Dantes Inferno) at 1024 Davie St.
Not to mention the supper club hot spots such as Isys 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 miners 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 didnt know what a key was and dont 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. Burleys 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 Miners Daughter. He didnt 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 Im 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 citys birthday on April 6.
If the Chicken Coop doesnt get a plaque, then therell 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
Due to a torn cartilage in her right knee, which is requiring surgery causing Loretta Lynn to postpone her March 18th through March 29th
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 aint no big deal!! They say I will be in and
out of the hospital in a couple hours ! But I wont be walking so good
for a couple weeks! Yall 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
Getty Images
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."
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)
Friday February 25,2011
FIFTY years in the business has taken no toll whatsoever on the songs on this budget collection of nearly 40 tracks, all still fresher than your average daisy.
While some country stars are endlessly sobbing into their ginghams, the tone of this collection from the Coal Miners Daughter is much more upbeat with feisty tracks such as You Aint Woman Enough, Your Squaw Is On The Warpath and Fist City (if you dont want to go to Fist City, you better detour round my town).
By: American Songwriter
Thats the country-est album Ive ever done, says Loretta Lynn in our Legends interview about 2004s Van Lear Rose, the album she made with producer Jack White. I told [Jack] that and he said, Well, thank you. And hes not a country guy, hes 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. Hes 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 didnt 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, Thats 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 songs 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 audiences antics much like You Aint 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 doesnt 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 its 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 dont come easy, I lay it down. And sometimes Ill pick it up, and sometimes I wont 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 aint love, then tell me what is. DAVIS INMAN
Portland, Oregon
Well Portland, Oregon and sloe gin fizz
If that aint love then tell me what is
Well I lost my heart it didnt take no time
But that aint 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
The
Coal-Miners Daughter, Loretta Lynn, will be heading to Philadelphia in
March to perform with The Secret Sissters at the new Temple Performing
Arts Center (formerly the Baptist Temple).
Lynn is celebrating her 50th year in country music with a new tribute album, Coal Miners Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn, released today on Columbia Records and featuring a diverse group of contributing artists including Jack White, Reba McEntire, Kid Rock, Carrie Underwood, Paramore, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Gretchen Wilson and Alan Jackson and Martina McBride.
To make it in this business, you either have to be, first, great or different, says Lynn. And I was the first to ever go into Nashville, singin it like the women lived it.
Temple Performing Arts Center is located at 1837 N. Broad St. (across from the Liacouras Center).
Tickets for the March 18 show go on sale Friday and are $62.50 and $72.50.
Information: 800-298-4200; www.Comcasttix.com.
Country Music Superstar Loretta Lynn performs live with The Secret Sisters. The Coal-Miners Daughter, Loretta Lynn celebrates her 50thyear in country music with a new tribute album, special Grammy salute and a concert in Philadelphia March 18th The Tribute album, Coal Miners Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn, on Columbia Records and features a diverse group of contributing artists including Jack White, Reba McEntire, Kid Rock, Carrie Underwood, Paramore, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Gretchen Wilson and Alan Jackson and Martina McBride.
To make it in this business, you either have to be first, great or different, says living legend Loretta Lynn. And I was the first to ever go into Nashville, singin it like the women lived it.
Performance in Lew Klein Hall
Hey Best Coast, your recent and beautiful update of Loretta Lynns Fist City
sounded fresh. Couldve been one of your own, tucked in between songs
about heartbreak and weed. Youve reminded us just how 2K11 so many of
Lynns 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, wouldnt flinch from Lil Kims
hate. Nicki: listen up. Lorettas 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 worlds first female rapper? Check out a
video of her performance of Fist City and Best Coasts cover after
the jump.
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 doesnt take any agony or even much thought, it just takes time with a guitar alone to capture them as they fly by. Thats 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 musics 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 shed done it her whole life. Her first two songs, Whispering Sea and Im 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 couldnt 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 Miners 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 wasnt 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 shes 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 its an honor for this writer to interview her, she just laughs, and says, Honey, dont 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 didnt 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, dont 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. Shed 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. Id 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 dont know why. They told me in Nashville they couldnt believe it, what youre 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 didnt 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 wouldnt 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 cant believe youre 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 didnt know that people didnt look like that. I come to Nashville and Im the only one who walked in looking like a country singer, with my boots and my guitar round my neck, Ive come to sing.
When I first started singing, although I was writing songs, I did other peoples songs, like I Walked Away From The Wreck. Owen Bradley told me, You start doing your own stuff. But I was afraid they wouldnt go over. I put out records, but they didnt 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 Miners Daughter is such a vivid picture of your childhood.
I had more verses. Owen Bradley said, Loretta, theres already been one El Paso and well 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 Id never thrown them away. If Id kept them, I could record them now and put them back in the song.
You dont 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.
Its 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 mans dollar.
Well, that was the truth. Everything that I put in that song was true. I lived all of it. Ive lived a lot of stuff that I wrote. Of course Doo, my husband, wouldnt have wanted to heard that. But I did. I never had to lie about anything I was writing about. That was my problem. I didnt lie. And sometimes Owen would say, I dont know whether you should put that out there now. Doo might divorce you. And Id say, Let him divorce me, its 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 didnt, hed say, I dont think thats so good. And Id throw it away and start again.
Were you there when they shot the movie about your life, Coal Miners Daughter?
Id seen some of it. I would fly into a place if Sissy [Spacek] needed me. Sometimes theyd call me and say, Loretta, can you fly in? Shes been crying all day. Id fly in and thered be part of the movie that bothered her, and shed be crying, and Id try to shut her up. Id say, Im here, why are you crying?
But she did such a good job. For the first year, I was doing two shows a night. And Id 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 Aint Woman Enough For My Man?
You Aint Woman Enough come to me when a little girl come back stage and said her husband didnt 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 wouldnt believe. I looked round at the little girl that was talking to me. And she didnt have no makeup at all. And I said, Honey, she aint 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 wont. 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 Ones On The Way. They started hollering about some of the songs and banned them from the radio. But immediately, when people would hear theyd been banned from the radio, theyd hit Number 1 in a hurry. And then [radio] would have to play them. If they had listeners, theyd have to play the one that was banned.
Did you enjoy making the album Van Lear Rose with Jack White?
Thats the country-est album Ive ever done. I told [Jack] that and he said, Well, thank you. And hes not a country guy, hes 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. Hes a good guy, Jack White is.
I didnt 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, Thats 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. Its got to fit the song. If it dont fit the song, I dont think itll 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 its 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 dont come easy, I lay it down. And sometimes Ill pick it up, and sometimes I wont 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 dont, Ill never remember it. Ive got to write it down right then, or Ill 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 youre not married anymore which Im not, my husband passed away 14 years ago naturally, youre gonna feel that way. And you just miss being Mrs.
Youre good with wordplay like that. Like in Coal Miners 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 shouldnt use it. But I let it go anyway and thought, yeah, Im gonna use it.
And we understand.
You knew it was good, didnt you? Well, bless your heart. Boy, Ive 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 didnt 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. Theres a couple of them in Branson right now singing. And Indians are in touch with nature. Thats me. I wrote about things that have happened. I probably took after the Indian part on that.
Do you remember writing Youre Looking At Country?
Yeah. I remember we came home. Weve 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 youre 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 cant finish?
Oh yeah. Ive had a lot of them. I dont know why I dont go back and finish them. I just kind of quit writing. I havent written a song in a long time.
Why?
Lazy. But Im gonna get back to it.
Youve written so many classics that you have nothing left to prove.
True, I dont have a thing to prove, but if I write, Im gonna prove something. Dont do anything that you cant do best. I dont believe in doing something that I dont 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 wont dedicate my life to something thats not good.
What advice would you give songwriters?
Write about the truth. If you write about the truth, somebodys living that. Not just somebody, theres 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
Lynns 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 (Dont 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 youre looking at me, youre looking at country, which, while true, doesnt go quite far enough. Youre also looking at history. Chris Davis
To celebrate the release of the multi-artist tribute album Coal Miners Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn on November 9th,
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 artists GRAMMY® Award-winning album Van Lear Rose - will be delivered to the artists ranch in the spring of 2011, with more available for purchase shortly after.
Roses have always been so special to me Ive loved them since I was a girl, said Loretta. So to have a rose named after one of my albums . . . well, Im not sure I quite have the words for that! Im just very, very honored. I cant 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 blooms 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 countrys true musical pioneers is available now. Coal Miners 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 Lynns influence is immediately evident in this salute one of countrys 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 50th anniversary of Loretta Lynns 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 Miners 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 Nashvilles Ryman Auditorium with a star-studded tribute concert. At the concert, Loretta was presented with the Presidents Merit Award, honoring her cultural influence and contributions to country music.