Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.

Jaw-dropping.

There’s probably not a better phrase to describe an all-star band that’s being put together by producer T Bone Burnett. Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, who sung the Grammy-winning “O Death” on T Bone’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, will share the stage with keyboard players Elton John and Leon Russell, eclectic rocker Elvis Costello, Americana artist Neko Case and actor Jeff Bridges under the banner T Bone Burnett’s Speaking Clock Revue. They’ll be assembled Oct. 24 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., during the second day of Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit.

The rock-and-country mix in T Bone’s ensemble is reflective of the multi-genre texture of the event’s larger lineup. Country-rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield will reunite for the weekend, and country’s Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson will play the same stage as Americana’s Lucinda Williams, classic-rockers Jackson Browne and Billy Idol, and modern-rock bands Pearl Jam and Modest Mouse.

The link between country artists and their pop and rock peers is strong these days. And it’s in full force in a lot of ways. Among other notable examples:

Continue Reading

ShareThis

Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry.

Last week, Loretta Lynn got doubly good news when her “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was entered into the National Recording Registry and Vintage Books announced it was re-releasing her autobiography in September.

Now her autumn schedule is looking even more attractive. The Recording Academy has announced that Loretta will be recognized during the second Grammy Salute To Country Music Oct. 12 at the historic Ryman Auditorium. During the night, she’ll receive the Recording Academy President’s Merit Award. She’ll also be given her Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; she was unable to attend in January when the Academy recognized her — alongside Bobby Darin and Michael Jackson — with that honor in January.

Continue Reading

ShareThis

Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of Interscope Records.

This fall will mark a whopping 40 years since Loretta Lynn hit radio waves with “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” but the song is enduring enough that it made news in not just one, but two different ways on Wednesday.

For starters, the book that carried the same name, Coal Miner’s Daughter, will be reissued in September by Vintage Books, which will market the autobiography as a paperback, an e-book and an audio book, narrated by Sissy Spacek. Sissy is, of course, a natural for that job, since she won an Oscar for portraying Loretta in the movie that was built around the book and even got a Grammy nomination for her own recording of “Coal Miner.” The movie, in fact, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Continue Reading

ShareThis

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.”

Continue Reading

ShareThis

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

ShareThis