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By Edna Gundersen, USA
TODAY
USA
TODAY
To country and rock separatists, honky-tonker Loretta
Lynn's partnership with garage revivalist Jack White
seemed like a freaky, fleeting alignment of planets from
opposite ends of the solar system.
The studio pairing of Loretta Lynn, 70, and White
Stripes frontman Jack White, 29, was hardly the awkward
waltz many expected.
"I didn't think of it that way," says Lynn, who
recognized a shooting star and recalled her own days as
a hungry and headstrong musician.
"His mind-set is where mine started," she says. "He
loved the way I sing, and he wanted to record me. I
said, 'great.' I figured it would work or it wouldn't.
And if it didn't, I'd just do the record over again."
Plan B stayed in outer space. Van Lear Rose has five
Grammy nominations, including best country album. Miss
Being Mrs. is up for female country vocal, and Portland,
Oregon made the country collaboration slot. Both tracks
are vying for best country song. (Related audio: Hear a
clip from Van Lear Rose)
The pairing of Lynn, 70, and White, 29, was hardly the
awkward waltz many expected. The Nashville legend's 13
lively and engrossing tunes, framed in White's spare,
rootsy production, emerged after swift culling and
sessions that reminded Lynn of legendary Nashville
producer Owen Bradley's work habits.
"When I sung a song Jack didn't care much for, I put it
aside," Lynn says in a phone interview from her
Tennessee home, where she's recovering from back
surgery. "Owen would make me sing a few times before
we'd record. But with Jack, we'd record it, and it was
over. That's probably what made it go. At first, I
thought, 'uh-oh.' But it clicked; it worked. I knew Jack
was a rock 'n' roll singer, but that never made me
nervous. Nothing much can scare me anymore."
Lynn's hardscrabble upbringing is familiar to country
fans and anyone who has read Coal Miner's Daughter or
has seen the biopic starring Sissy Spacek. (White was 9
when he watched back-to-back screenings all day and
vowed to record with her someday.)
Born in Butcher Holler, Ky., Lynn grew up with seven
siblings (including singer Crystal Gayle) in rural
poverty, a plight unremedied by her 1948 marriage at 13
to Oliver "Mooney" Lynn. By 17, she had four youngsters.
Before she became a country queen in the 1960s, "I had
it hard, a lot harder than most," she says. "I thought
it was bad before I got married, but I didn't know how
bad it was till I didn't have anything in the house for
the kids to eat. When your husband's out in the woods
logging and you're out of groceries and your kids go to
bed hungry, it's tough. I'd pick dandelions and cook
them. You never forget it."
Lynn's dandelion days are preserved in a cookbook of
family recipes she published last fall. Packed with
anecdotes, You're Cookin' It Country (Rutledge Hill
Press, $24.99) unlocks the secrets to buttermilk
biscuits, hominy grits and eggplant casserole, as well
as slightly intimidating regional fare.
"Possum," Lynn says. "That was daddy's favorite dish.
Wasn't mine. Mama was the hunter. Possum's real greasy,
and she'd cook and cook until it would get tender. She'd
have sweet potatoes all cut and quartered with brown
sugar around the possum."
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