Jack White Gives Loretta Lynn New Edge
By JOHN GEROME
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Eerie guitar licks creak and swirl on Loretta Lynn's new album as she sings about a woman on death row: „Now they've strapped me in the chair / And covered up my eyes / And the last voice I hear on earth / Is my mama's cry.“The 69-year-old Lynn jolted country music 30 years ago with plainspoken feminist songs like „Rated X“ and „The Pill.“ Now she's re-establishing herself with „Van Lear Rose,“ a sometimes dark collection produced by Jack White of the White Stripes.
White gives Lynn's twangy vocals and traditional instrumentation a rock edge, with loud drums and bursts of grungy guitar. There's a driving duet between the two called „Portland Oregon,“ a moody, atmospheric spoken-word song „Little Red Shoes“ and a hand-clapping sing-along „High On a Mountaintop.“
The loose sound is by design. Lynn's vocals were recorded in only one or two takes, and White used outside musicians instead of polished Nashville studio pros.
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White is a longtime admirer of Lynn's. He dedicated the White Stripes' breakthrough disc, 2001's „White Blood Cells,“ to her. Lynn's manager told her about it, and she wrote White a letter thanking him for the dedication and for the Stripes' cover of „Rated X.“ They became friends and even performed together in 2003 at a New York show.When Lynn decided to record a new album, White was chosen to produce it.
„He's got a lot of energy,“ Lynn says. „He's still a kid, you know, so he feels like he can jump the river and turn around and jump back over. He don't think that nobody's any older than him.“
Hier kann man 3 komplette Songs hören, so auch das Duett der beiden. Van Lear Rose jedenfalls ist großartig.