Loretta Lynn's 50 Years in Music Honored with Tribute Album

Douglas Boultinghouse
Editor-in-Chief

Courtesy of Loretta Lynn

    The music industry honored legendary artist Loretta Lynn’s 50 years in music with a tribute album released Nov. 9.

   “Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn” features an eclectic group of artists, all personally picked by Lynn, covering the icon’s greatest hits.

   In the album’s liner notes, Lynn says, “I cannot believe it has been 50 years since my husband Doolittle came up with what I thought was the craziest idea – and that was for me to become a country singer.”

   While most would think, with Lynn being one of country music’s original leading ladies, the album would include nothing but country artists … think again. The Coal Miner’s Daughter called on punk-rock group Paramore, southern rock artist Kid Rock and the rock duo the White Stripes.

   A crop of country artists however also channel their inner Loretta Lynn. Most of them, surprisingly well.

Honky Tonk Girl

   “Redneck Woman” Gretchen Wilson opens the album with Lynn’s hit “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” 

   Wilson sounds eerily similar to Lynn and provides a great start to what follows, Lynn’s very first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” a classic tune by country traditionalist Lee Ann Womack.

   Womack croons, “So turn that jukebox way up high / And fill my glass up while I cry / I’ve lost everything in this world / And now, I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” over a mellow series of strings.

   The White Stripes took on Lynn’s feisty “Rated X” and the song works extremely well as a tambourine-tinged rocker.

   Oddly the White Stripes’ rock track or what Paramore later does to “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” is not as surprising as Carrie Underwood singing “You’re Looking at Country.”

   Underwood, no doubt, is one of country music’s greatest vocalists, but one thing she’s never shown too much is her twang. Perhaps she only thickened up her country accent to sound more like Lynn, but regardless … she knocked it out of the park, providing one of the best tributes on the album. 

   “You don't see no city when you look at me / 'Cause country is all I am / I love a runnin' bare-footed through the old cornfields / And I love that country ham,” she sings.

   Here’s hoping Underwood decides to release a country standards album in the future and puts her twang on display.

   Martina McBride and Alan Jackson team up and re-create the magic once made by Lynn and Conway Twitty on “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man.” The pair’s version sounds almost identical to the original No. 1 hit. The chemistry between the two would make for a fun music video with them dressed as Lynn and Twitty.

   As mentioned before, punk-rockers Paramore tackled one of Lynn’s most recognizable songs and with Hayley Williams singing lead, their stripped and acoustic version of “You Ain’t Woman Enough” comes close to country perfection.

   “Women like you, they’re a dime a dozen / You can buy ‘em anywhere,” Haley Williams sings. “For you to get to him / I’d have to move over / And I’m gonna stand right here.”

   It would take a lot of talent to follow this raw gem and generally Faith Hill has loads of talent, but she fails with her rendition of “Love is the Foundation.”

   She changes her voice so much on the song she sounds nothing like herself or even someone channeling Lynn. Hill has a great voice, but this song does not show that. If “Love is the Foundation” needed to be on the album, it should have been given to someone else. Perhaps Joey Martin of Joey + Rory, LeAnn Rimes or even Miranda Lambert, who later appears on the album? Also as Lynn requested Hill for the album, Hill could have chosen a song better suited for her, such as “Fist City” or “One’s on the Way.”

Coal Miner’s Daughter

   Luckily legendary artist Steve Earle and singer-songwriter Allison Moorer pick things back up with “After the Fire is Gone.” Their voices blend together seamlessly and lead right into a track by one of the most unmistakable voices in country music.

   Reba McEntire teamed up with the Time Jumpers for the swinging “If You’re Not Gone Too Long.”

   “But if you’re gone for a year or two / Well baby, you know that’s too hard to be true / I might find somebody else / ‘Cause I get lonesome by myself,” she sings over a steel guitar. “I’ll be the truest love you’ve known / For a while I’ll stay at home / And I’ll be true to you honey while you’re gone / If you’re not gone too long.”

   Kid Rock turned Lynn’s “I Know How” into an 80s-sounding rock anthem and it makes sense, he knows how.

   “Yeah I give her what she needs and that's why I'm hers right now / Yes I know I love her right / ‘Cause I know how, yeah I know how,” he sings.

   Soulful blues and folk artist Lucinda Williams turned out “Somebody Somewhere (Don’t Know What He’s Missing Tonight)” and effortlessly puts the pain of the song front and center. Having never heard Lucinda Williams before, her voice comes across haunting and enchanting on the song.

   The album ends, perfectly fitting, with Lynn’s autobiographical hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

   Lynn herself begins the track, “Well I was born’d a Coal Miner’s Daughter / In a cabin, on a hill in Butcher Holler.”

   Country bombshell Miranda Lambert chimes in “My daddy worked all night in the Van Lear Coal Mine / And all day long in a field a-hoein' corn.”

   Country and rock artist Sheryl Crow sings “Daddy loved and raised 8 kids on a miner's pay / And mommy scrubbed our clothes on a washboard ev’ry day.”

   Each woman takes turns singing lines of the song, but for lines like “I never thought of ever leavin’ Butcher Holler” and “’Cept the memories of a Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the trio harmonizes stunningly.

   The album, as it says, pays tribute to one of the greatest women of country music and music in general. It is a piece of work co-produced by Lynn’s daughter Patsy, which shows the many ways songs can be re-worked to fit different genres, as well as some artists stepping into new territories.

   Fans of Lynn and all-around music lovers will find something on the tribute to take a likin’ to.

   “All the artists who are on this record, I thank you all and I am so very honored,” Lynn wrote in her album notes. “I love you.”

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