440. Loretta Lynn, "Coal Miner's Daughter"

 


Oh my god what a relief.  After two straight bleepy bloopy overcompressed Autotuned vocals albums, this arrives like a pure and clean breath of fresh air.  It's just Loretta and an incredible studio band and the Jordanaires singing backup.  11 fantastic songs in a tight 29:43.  What a gorgeous album.

Of course, you all know "Coal Miner's Daughter," written by Lynn, about her upbringing in rural Kentucky.  I bet if you asked 100 people at random to name a country music song, maybe 50% would name this song.  (The fact that it was the title of Lynn's autobiography and a movie of the same name probably doesn't hurt.)  That's followed by a fantastic cover of Conway Twitty's "Hello Darlin'," which has been covered tons of times, of course, including by George Jones.  Lynn brings her own reading of the song, and to my mind does it just as much justice as Twitty's.

There are some SONGWRITERS represented here.  The third song, "Less of Me," is by Glen Campbell.  Kristofferson has a track, too ("For the Good Times").  But despite this stellar collection of songwriters (and songs), it's Lynn's voice that makes it.  She has a way of infusing a song with emotion that you can't teach.  You can hear the yearning, the intensity of emotion.  She's also a technically great singer, able to stretch out a note or bend it in exactly the right way for the song.

Loretta Lynn is now 88 years old.  She's releasing her 50th studio album in March of this year.  What have you been doing lately?

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