It\u2019s hard to believe sometimes that the Daily Vault has been in existence for 25 years, and I\u2019ve been writing for it on and off for 23 of them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also hard to believe that with all those years, with a goal of publishing at least one new review a day, we\u2019ve missed so many classics. The day I wrote this, one of the greatest country-western singers ever, Loretta Webb Lynn, finally passed on at the age of 90, and I realized as a result that we had never reviewed her 1971 classic Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Well, <\/i>thought I, let\u2019s fix THAT.<\/i><\/p>\n
I had never listened to Daughter<\/i>; my exposure to classic country was mostly a function of my childhood where, living in rural Illinois, WMAQ (\u201cThe Trucker\u2019s Friend\u201d) was one of the radio stations we could get in really well. Many a night I fell asleep listening to country music and road reports. I\u2019m sure Loretta Lynn figured in that prominently, though I don\u2019t recall specifics.<\/p>\n
Damn shame. Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/i> is one of the best classic country albums I\u2019ve ever heard.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get the negative out of the way first. Most sixties and seventies country was not recorded on state-of-the-then-art equipment; the sound on Daughter<\/i> is restricted in its dynamic range and a touch tinny, to an even greater extent than pop music of the same era. This was four-track reel-to-reel stuff when recorded, and remastering can only do so much.<\/p>\n
But, the songs\u2014DAMN. Lynn was a genius when it comes to picking her tunes; there is a judicious selection of covers (Conway Twitty\u2019s \u201cHello Darlin\u2019,\u201d Anne Murray\u2019s \u201cSnowbird\u201d) and originals. Standouts among those are the autobiographical \u201cCoal Miner\u2019s Daughter\u201d (the song) and the wistful \u201cAnother Man Loved Me Last Night.\u201d Among the things that makes Lynn stand out is her wicked sense of humor, featured on \u201cWhat Makes Me Tick\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019ll Be Open Season On You\u201d (yes, Loretta Lynn threatened to blow someone away in a song. Woman was TOUGH.)<\/p>\n
Anyone who wants a rudimentary education in great American music needs to give Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/i> a listen. It only misses a perfect score because of that recording issue. Check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8259],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46450","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-loretta-lynn","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46450"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}