LORETTA LYNN
"Wouldn't It Be Great"
BOTTOM LINE: Adding to her legendary country catalog and revisiting some of her classics.
More than five decades into her legendary career, Loretta Lynn remains a bracing breath of fresh air on her new "Wouldn't It Be Great" (Legacy) album.
She mastered the ability to sound genuine no matter what the situation long ago. And Lynn continues that here, whether she is singing about secretly dumping an ashtray into a rival's beer in the honky-tonk "Ruby's Stool" or plaintively singing about longing for connection on "I'm Dying for Someone to Live For."
With the help of producers Patsy Lynn Russell, Lynn's daughter, and John Carter Cash, son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, she also takes songs from her past and gives them timelier readings. "Coal Miner's Daughter" has become prouder and more defiant than the original, while the traditional folk song "Lulie Vars," about a pregnant girl being murdered by her boyfriend, could be a #MeToo anthem.
"Wouldn't It Be Great" was set to be released last year, but was delayed when Lynn suffered a stroke. Its release now marks the Queen of Country's recovery and proves that her reign is as strong as ever.
