Ten Homegrown Favorites: Loretta Lynn (#1)

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After a day and a half off to take a trip to St. Louis for Twangfest it's time to reveal my favorite Kentucky-born musician. This countdown was inspired by @LoriAMoore (and we'll need to go back to City BBQ and flirt with your side guy soon!), who highlighted some famous Kentucky singers....including this one. To nobody's surprise, here's my favorite Kentucky native in music. #1: Loretta Lynn Yeah, I was going to put Hylo Brown at the top of the list! (I do like Hylo Brown [his name is listed on the "Country Music Highway" of US Route 23 in eastern Kentucky where you'll find several others, including Loretta], but come on!) An absolute American institution. Loretta Lynn is a name that people who have no clue whatsoever about country music know. Her life story was made into an Oscar-winning movie (Coal Miner's Daughter). She's one of the few real living legends left in any genre of music. Hailing from the tiny coal mining eastern Kentucky town of Butcher Holler (for the record, it's Butcher Hollow, but it's just not right to say it any other way than Loretta does), Loretta was one of eight children born to a coal miner (so that song was quite true). Two of her siblings, Peggy Sue Webb and Crystal Gayle, are also singers. What set Loretta Lynn apart from the others? Songwriting. Kitty Wells kicked the door down for women as singers, but it was Loretta who said that women could be singer/songwriters and be very, very good at it. She was a women's libber and a half: not only did she write the songs and sing them with complete and total conviction (when she sings "Fist City" you know that you don't "want to go to fist city" against her), but she took the "it takes two to tango" mentality that J.D. Miller espoused in Kitty Wells' hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" and ran with it in frequently provocative ways. She had a song, "The Pill," banned by many country radio stations (despite the fact that, about the same time, Charlie Rich was boasting about getting "Behind Closed Doors" and Conway Twitty was bom-bom-bomming us to death with his sexually suggestive "You've Never Been This Far Before"), because she sang of the woman going out and having a fling instead of the man doing it all the time. Loretta frequently used her tumultuous marriage to Doolittle Lynn as subject matter for several of her songs. She admitted his sins ("I'm not saying my baby's a saint, 'cause he ain't" in "Fist City," or the songs "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' [With Lovin' on Your Mind]" and Your Squaw is On the Warpath" about his alcoholism and infidelity). Two weeks after her 85th birthday earlier this year Loretta Lynn suffered a stroke, which forced her to cancel her upcoming tour. The reports are that she is currently undergoing rehabilitation at home, and is, per reports, expected to make a full recovery. You may not know any song other than "Coal Miner's Daughter" -- and you might only know that one in name -- but you dang sure know Loretta Lynn's name. And, to paraphrase one of her songs, when your eyes are on her, you're lookin' at country....pure 100% Kentucky country. Thanks for reading. Loretta Lynn Born Loretta Webb, April 14, 1932, Butcher Holler Genre: country Country Music Hall of Fame - 1998 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame - 1983 Country-Gospel Music Hall of Fame - 1999 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award - 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom - 2013 Loretta Lynn's Grammy-nominated 2016 album Full Circle proved that she is still very relevant in music. Here's a great song from that album, featuring fan Elvis Costello (who once covered "Success") on harmony: