Country Music Blog: Loretta Lynn

I got a puppy about a month ago. So naturally, I became instantly obsessed with dogs as if I was the first person to actually own one. I have all the books, I watch Animal Planet non-stop and spend about $150 a week at PetSmart on toys this little guy has no interest in. I've done everything short of getting a my-dog-is-smarter-than-your-dog bumper sticker. But what I keep wondering is, why there are no good country songs about dogs?

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Taylor Swift came by the office this week and thanked us -- my co-workers and me -- for our support of her here at CMT.com. I know you think that because I work at CMT.com, I get to rub elbows with a lot of stars. Not really. As my co-worker remarked, "I think that's the second time in 11 years we had an artist come thank us in person."

Later, I kept thinking of the scene in Coal Miner's Daughter where Loretta Lynn drove up to the radio station, went in with her record and asked them to play it. I think it might be easy to dismiss Taylor's meteoric rise to the megawatt power of the Internet. But thinking back on the movie, I see similarities between these two women. Read more...

Dierks Bentley, John Rich and Gretchen Wilson remember the Station nightclub fire, which occurred five years ago, with an acoustic concert in Rhode Island.

Did you bite into something crunchy at Country Radio Seminar? The health scores for the Nashville Convention Center might explain why the lights were so dim.

Speaking of country radio, is your favorite station among the off-camera nominations for the Academy of Country Music Awards?

Sam Bush, Natalie McMaster and Chris Thile will be playing RockyGrass this summer in Telluride, Colo., and the single-day lineups have been announced.

This rock star produced Loretta Lynn's Grammy-winning album and lives in Nashville. Now, Jack White is rush-releasing a CD by his new band, The Raconteurs.

So what do you think would have happened if, say, Loretta Lynn or Miranda Lambert were married to a cheating politician? Not that they would be, but what if they were? What if Loretta or Miranda were somehow married to Elliot Spitzer or Bill Clinton and he came in tail-dragging-behind-him to confess to her about a scandalous thang he had been doing with some floozy or hooker - just before he tells her to accompany him to a tell-all press conference? Where she can be the loyal, all-suffering little woman and demonstrate that they are still just a brave little family standing against the world? Well, I'll tell you what I think would happen. Elliot or Bill would be out there on the White House steps or the state mansion steps all by his lonesome and he would be severely hurting in some area of his body. That's what I think would happen.

So much for sex, drugs and rock and roll. Keith Urban's backstage demands range from organic mixed greens and smoked salmon to fruit smoothies and tea.

If there's a little girl in your life, there are two important bits of news. One, Faith Hill is one of the newest Stardolls. And two, Taylor Swift dolls will be on shelves just in time for the 2008 holiday season.

Who convinced Billy Ray Cyrus to get highlights and a tattoo on his hand? Miley Ray.
And who clogged the Cyrus' toilet when Barbara Walters was there?

Baby Bump Update: New pictures of Nicole Kidman reveal her teeny tiny belly that seems to suit her petite frame just perfectly. And she's clearly not taking advantage of the eating-for-two rule.

Think you can channel your inner Conway Twitty or Loretta Lynn? If so, get in line at the open auditions for "It's Only Make Believe," the musical about Twitty's life.

Ashton Shepherd's album, Sounds So Good, is here at last. So now everyone can enjoy the rich country sound she's bringing back to country radio (with the support of the smoking hot fiddle work by Nashville vet Joe Spivey). But for me, so much of what makes this music so blessedly relatable is the lyrics. So I'm going to list a dozen of the lines I love the most, and when you're done listening to the album I highly recommend buying, you can come back here and list your own favorites.

They are, in no particular order:

1. So what if I like the bar and dancin'? What do you care if you don't mind me askin'?

2. Tonight I've had too much to drink and he stays on my mind.

3. There ain't nothin' like the sound of a cooler slushin' on the bed of your truck.

4. You don't ever even talk to me, I just get to do your laundry.

5. There's always somethin' to be done, but I still like havin' fun.

6. I'm a grown woman, I should've already set myself free.

7. I felt at home though I'd never been in there before.

8. She ain't gonna stay, she don't work that way.

9. I've got a baby at home, a to-do list a mile long.

10. And hopin' to God you feel like I do, completely lost in you.

11. I can't believe you even spoke to me, what nerve you must have.

12. I like a pint of Crown and a country sound.

I know that words on paper don't do justice to the way they sound coming out of her mouth, but you have to admit they certainly pique your interest. Now just try to imagine them delivered with a Loretta Lynn twangy drawl, Patsy Cline expressiveness, Gretchen Wilson sass, Martina McBride power and Carrie Underwood's vocal control. Or, just go download the album to hear these lyrics come to life. Even without the pint of Crown, these 11 songs will put you in your happy country place.

For the last year and a half, I have been obsessed with The Doyle and Debbie Show - a country music send-up that is still going strong in Nashville. See, Doyle Mayfield is a washed-up country star who never really had too many hits to start with, but when he discovers his "new Debbie" in a rural VFW hall, he realizes that she's his ticket back to the big time. It's a script, so you get the same show every night (and I've seen it 11 times now), but it's just so clever that I can't keep from cracking up time and time again.

My favorite line in the whole thing may come from "Stock Car Love," as Debbie confides, "I miss the pole position. I used to get it all the time. But now I barely qualify at all." The whole song is completely ridiculous, yet it's more inventive than just about any novelty song I've ever heard. You can hear most of the music (but unfortunately none of the dialogue) on their Web site. Still, the real reason to see it in person is for Doyle's anything-for-entertainment gestures, and Debbie's hilariously subtle expressions that prove she's giving it all she's got with this wacko.

To me, Doyle is pretty much a cross between Bill Anderson and Glen Campbell, and he seems ready to come unhinged at any moment. Meanwhile, Debbie is a pretty little gal who actually has a brain and a strong set of pipes. She just wants to be a star so bad that she makes some bad decisions. (Really... really bad.) She can sing like Loretta Lynn or Patsy Cline, but "For the Children" is like a melodramatic Martina McBride ballad gone very, very wrong. But that's OK. As Doyle & Debbie are proud to admit, they're just doing all they could with what the good Lord gave 'em.

Events are underway in Los Angeles as the Recording Academy prepares for the 50th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 10). A Grammy is one of the ultimate achievements in music, though if you listened to rhetoric in Nashville, most years someone writes it off as a lame exercise.Country artists have voiced opposition to the Grammys -- saying they don't present enough country awards or country performances on television -- for years. Tanya Tucker made such a claim in the early ‘90s, Toby Keith did it this decade, and practically all of Music Row got mad at the Academy last year when the only country artists on the show, Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood, were featured in a tribute to the Eagles and Bob Wills. They performed none of their own material.

The anger demonstrates pride in the genre, a good thing. It also shows a certain provincialism, not such a good thing, though realistically Music City fights a huge L.A. provincialism that's built into the process. The anger is also fueled by dollars, which is just a fact of life.

While viewers watch awards shows for entertainment, the industry gets behind them as a promotional tool. If your artist wins a Grammy or a CMA Award, it can mean more press, more sales and higher concert prices. If an artist performs, it can particularly fuel a spike in sales.

So country executives want all the slots they can get. But so do the classical, jazz, Christian and gospel folks. Somebody is always unhappy with the process.

Increasing the antagonism, the Grammys don't line up with the other country awards shows. More than any other genre, country relies on radio to reach its audience, and the CMA and ACM award shows reflect that very much. Most years, the Grammys throw non-radio hits into the nominations mix, giving space to artists whose current work doesn't get much radio play -- this year, that includes Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers -- and sometimes giving actual trophies to people without country radio hits, such as the Dixie Chicks last year, Alison Krauss & Union Station in 2006 and Loretta Lynn the year before.

I personally find it refreshing, but I probably come from a naïve place. I'm very aware of the bottom line, but I still care most about the quality of the product, which is what every awards show -- not just the Grammys -- should reflect.

I don't know anything about Ashton Shepherd, except that I want her to be my new best friend. That way, if my husband ever becomes the no-good louse of a man she sings about in "Takin' Off This Pain," she'll be there to empower me with her big twangy voice and her all-too-real lyrics.

She sings, for example, about how "You don't ever even talk to me / I just get to do your laundry." On paper, it's just another cruel lyrical reminder of the realities of married life. But coming out of Shepherd's mouth, "laundry" all of a sudden has five syllables, which correlates nicely with the never-ending feeling of being some guy's lawfully wedded laundress. When she does set herself free from a man who likes to sits there "and watch the TV / Even when I’m lookin' sexy," she does so with a cold beer in her right hand. That would certainly help ease any anxieties about telling him off. In the chorus, when she belts out that she's "taking off this pain you put on me," she's referring to the wedding band on her left hand. That's deep, to think that the band symbolizing the unending nature of being a Mrs. is actually inflicting torture.

Lyrics like that make it easy to throw this new girl into the Gretchen Wilson box – an edgy, tough broad telling it like it is and all that. Close your eyes, though, and she’s got some Jennifer Nettles in her, or even a little of the sassiness that made Loretta Lynn stand out. But there’s still something unequivocally distinctive about her voice. Listen, or watch the video on CMT.com, and you’ll feel overwhelmed with girl-power immediately. (If you’re a woman, anyway. Chances are men won’t get it, so don’t flaunt your new favorite too loudly. Like don’t start referring to your wedding ring as “that raaainggg.”)

Shepherd’s Southern drawl, set to music, will encourage country fans to stand up to all those bad husbands out there. And to rejoice in the good ones, if you are so blessed.

Each time I hear a new country song that falls flat—not a rare occurrence these days—I think about all the tunes I loved the first time I encountered them but which may never surface again, simply because they didn’t chart or else charted so low and so briefly that they won’t ever be included in a greatest hits album. 

Here are a few neglected titles that leaped to mind, prefaced by the names of the artists who recorded them:  Randy Travis’ “Reasons I Cheat,” a somber self-assessment by a man on the edge; Charlie Moore’s “Best Female Actress Of The Year,” a withering blast at a faithless girlfriend (and a distractingly redundant title as well); the Stanley Brothers’ “The Fields Have Turned Brown,” bluegrass poetry and homesickness at its most eloquent; Gus Hardin’s “I’m Dancing As Fast As I Can,” a glimpse of a woman overwhelmed; the Country Gentlemen’s “Bringing Mary Home,” the gentlest ghost song ever written.

Also John Conlee’s “I’d Rather Have What We Had,” a celebration of “sneaking around” that was also cut by Loretta Lynn and Lee Ann Womack but which is more convincing as a man’s song; Marlow Tackett’s “I Know The Way To You By Heart,” a vivid, albeit forlorn presentation of love as a lifeline; Donna Ulisse’s “Trouble At The Door,” understated, unexpected and unparalleled; Dr. Hook’s “A Couple More Years,” the weary voice of amorous experience; Black Tie’s “Learning the Game,” blissful harmonies elevating an old, old subject; Gene Watson’s “Down Here On My Knees,” a plea only the hardest heart could resist.

And Pam Gadd’s image-rich tribute to a passing generation, “All The Old Men Are Gone”; Bruce Hauser & the Sawmill Creek Band’s “Let’s Do Something Old Fashioned,” which softly suggests that restraint might actually enhance love; Willie Rainsford’s torrid “No Relief In Sight”; and, finally, Ralph Stanley’s majestic masterpiece of wishful thinking, “Gloryland.”

Now what buried treasures have I overlooked?  And, by the way, don’t you really miss Randy Travis?