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:

• Maroon 5’s next album, Hands All Over, comes out Sept. 21, and it includes a collaboration with Lady Antebellum.

• Robert Plant’s next album, Band Of Joy, is released today. At one point, it appeared he’d be doing another project with Alison Krauss, but that was abandoned. Instead, the album now includes appearances by several other Nashville-associated musicians: guitarists Buddy Miller and Darrell Scott, vocalist Patty Griffin and bass player Byron House.

• The track list to Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn has finally been unveiled, with four pop and rock artists covering the Country Hall of Famer’s classics. Pop star Sheryl Crow joins Loretta and Miranda Lambert on “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the band Paramore does “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” Kid Rock covers “I Know How” and the White Stripes — led by Jack White, the producer of Loretta’s Van Lear Rose — remake “Rated X.” The album will be released Nov. 9.

• Martina McBride joined voices with R&B greats Stevie Wonder and Aaron Neville on “Unchained Melody” during last week’s network special “Stand Up To Cancer.” They were part of an ensemble that also featured Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis, U2 guitarist The Edge and former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart.

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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.”

Not that the road is the only place she works. Loretta’s developoing a gospel album, she’s re-recording many of her earlier hits, and she’s been co-writing with Shawn Camp, whose composing credits include Garth Brooks’ “Two Pina Coladas,” George Strait’s “River Of Love” and Josh Turner’s “Firecracker.”

Despite penning such classics as “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” Loretta doesn’t just crank the songs out. They undergo numerous drafts before they reach the public.

“I write things, throw it out and put it in the garbage can,” she said. “Sometimes I drag it out again.”

Loretta’s work as a writer paid off with an induction last year into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She’s also been a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame since 1983.

Her upcoming road work includes shows Friday in Birmingham and Saturday in Columbus, Ga. She takes her homey bus next week to Ontario and Minnesota.

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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.

“She was my only girlfriend at the time,” Loretta told The Denver Post. “She took me under her wing, and when I lost her, it was something else. I still miss her to this day. I wrote ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man,’ and she said, ‘Loretta, that’s a damn hit.’ It shocked me, because you don’t expect somebody like Patsy Cline to tell you that you have a hit.”

Loretta must have allowed “You Ain’t Woman Enough” to sit on the shelf for some time before she finally did something with it. Patsy died, along with fellow singers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins, in a plane crash during March 1963. Loretta didn’t record “You Ain’t Woman Enough” until November 1965 — more than 30 months later. It’s clearly a classic. The Country Music Foundation’s book Heartaches By The Number ranked “You Ain’t Woman Enough” among the 500 greatest country singles of all-time.

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