Search Results for "Loretta Lynn"

Wanda Jackson in the '50s; Wanda and fellow rockabilly artist, Jerry Lee Lewis in 2009. Photo courtesy of myspace.com/wandajacksonmusic.

Wanda Jackson, the rockabilly queen who’s been enjoying a resurgence in attention, is about to follow in the footsteps of Country Music Hall of Famer Loretta Lynn. Wanda’s enlisted Jack White, the Nashville-based White Stripes rocker, to produce her next album.

He is “one of the biggest stars on the planet I guess right now,” Wanda told The Oklahoman.

Jack has found success not only with the Stripes, but also as a member of the Dead Weather and with the Raconteurs, who were Musical Event of the Year nominees at last week’s CMA awards for a collaboration with Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe.

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Tracy Lawrence photo courtesy of Rocky Comfort Records.

That swine flu virus that’s tapping out vaccine supplies and landing people in the hospital across the U.S. has hit Nashville. Music City ran through its first shipment of the vaccine in a scant two days, and even before that, Tracy Lawrence became one of country music’s first victims.

“For five or six weeks, I was pretty sick,” he told The Norman Transcript in Oklahoma. “I had H1N1 and pneumonia. It hit me a little harder because I’m asthmatic. It knocked me down pretty hard.”

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Kellie Pickler photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of Sony BMG.

Blonde and boisterous Kellie Pickler has frequently professed her appreciation of Dolly Parton, and the North Carolina native seems to have the same approach to the world as Dolly, who grew up across the stateline in neighboring Tennessee.

“I’m from a small town, but I don’t think small town,” Kellie told The Raleigh News & Observer. “I’ve always thought bigger. I’ve always wanted to travel the world and learn about other cultures and their religions and how they live. I’ve always been interested in the world. I think my biggest fear in life has always been to settle — to settle with a career and a lifestyle that I’m not completely happy about. … There’s nothing wrong with staying in a small town. But if you get a chance to step outside, go ahead and do it. That small town is always going to be there.”

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Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of Interscope Records.

Anyone who’s seen the Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter knows she earned her first hit single when she and her husband, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, drove around the country visiting radio stations in a cramped automobile.

That was in 1960. Almost 50 years later, she’s still working regularly, though she gets to pick and choose when, where and how often she does.

“I don’t have to work, so I work when I want to,” she told The Birmingham News. “I stay home and it bothers me… But I have it good on the road now, not like when I started. I have my bus fixed up just like a home, with five TVs in it. There’s a complete kitchen, a complete bathroom and a half-bathroom. It’s all my own.”

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Mandy Barnett photo courtesy of http://www.myspace.com/mandycarolbarnett.

If you’re in Nashville this week, get your ticket to the Grand Ole Opry’s “Country Classics” show on Thursday, October 8 at 7 p.m. (Central), hosted by GAC’s own Storme Warren.

As part of the Opry’s 84th Birthday Weekend, Thursday’s theme is ”songs that made the Grand Ole Opry famous.”

The lineup includes Mandy Barnett, Jack Greene, George Hamilton IV, Jan Howard, Hal Ketchum, Jim Lauderdale, the Del McCoury Band, the Opry Square Dancers, Jeannie Seely and Sunny Sweeney.

What can you expect at the show? You’ll hear Mandy singing the Ernest Tubb classic, “Walkin’ the Floor Over You,” Continue Reading

Crystal Gayle photo courtesy of Webster PR.

Next Friday, October 2 at 11:30 a.m., Crystal Gayle will get her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Crystal’s star will be near her sister Loretta Lynn’s star, and it’ll be the 2,390th on the Walk. Tanya Tucker will be a guest speaker at the event.

Crystal was born Brenda Gail Webb in Paintsville, Kentucky. When she was four years old, her family moved to Wabash, Indiana. Inspired by her sister’s career, she decided to learn to play the guitar and later sang in her brothers’ country bands. Continue Reading

LeAnn Rimes photo courtesy of Curb Records.

Trace Adkins, Ronnie Milsap and LeAnn Rimes are all affected by a spate of tough news stories, though none of them are the kind of issue that would make or break a career.

A single recorded by Trace and Ronnie is being hung out to dry in a spat between record companies, while LeAnn had her second minor car accident in a month. In addition, a fire at a long-established Indiana venue leaves a series of artists with cancelled shows. Continue Reading

Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry.

Loretta Lynn was rather famously friends with Patsy Cline when the Coal Miner’s Daughter first moved to Nashville during the early 1960s. Loretta paid tribute to her mentor with the 1977 album I Remember Patsy, but she also got a thumbs-up from the singer for one of her earliest hits.

“You Ain’t Woman Enough” was one of the songs that helped Loretta carve out an identity as a forthright, self-reliant female in a period where women in country music were labelled as “girl singers” and mostly controlled by the men that ran the business. Given the defiant nature of “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” it was considered a daring song. Patsy, who was no pushover, considered it a winner. Continue Reading

Whitney Duncan photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville. Photo credit: Jeff Lipsky.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service; Country Music Association®, Inc.

When Whitney Duncan left her hometown of Scotts Hill, Tenn., she took little with her other than a soulful voice, equal parts rawhide and honey, and a determination to seek her musical fortune. It took her a while to find it in the form of Mark Bright, who was so impressed with her that he shared the news with his friend John Shanks. Just like that, the two Music Row veterans were onboard to advise, write with and produce their discovery.

Duncan was just 18 at the time, though she had begun chasing her dream years before. After singing at her kindergarten graduation, she never looked back Continue Reading