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Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose (* * *
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USA Today
With 50-plus top 10 hits far behind her, Loretta Lynn
isn't the likeliest candidate to revitalize country
music. In a welcome throwback and stunning comeback, she
might be the genre's freshest hope. Van Lear Rose finds
the country legend in cahoots with a Northern oddfeller,
Jack White of Detroit duo White Stripes. It's a heavenly
mismatch. White serves Lynn unvarnished and unprocessed,
letting her raw vocal splendor sprawl in loose, gritty
arrangements that retain her earthy twang while rocking
harder than Ozzfest. At 70, Lynn is as gutsy and frisky
as ever in vivid snapshots of her storied past as the
coal miner's daughter on a gravel path to stardom. Her
down-home tunes (she penned 12 and co-wrote the
captivating Little Red Shoes with White) brim with
poignancy. She wistfully recalls her parents' courtship
on the pretty title track, dwells on the void left by
late hubby Doo on aching lament Miss Being Mrs. and
declares her faith and humility in God Makes No
Mistakes. But Van Lear Rose is no shrinking violet. Lynn
trots out her feminine wiles and feminist bile in the
uppity Mrs. Leroy Brown, revengeful waltz Family Tree
and impetuous Portland Oregon, a striking duet with
White, whose cantankerous guitar gives even the weepy
tracks a barn-burning intensity. Whether belting
defiance in Women's Prison or waxing euphoric in High on
a Mountain Top, Lynn makes old country hip again,
bringing the snap and crackle of modern pop to music
with roots deeper than a Kentucky coal mine. —Edna
Gundersen
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