Lynn Anderson, 1947-2015

Lynn Anderson, who died Thursday in Nashville at age 67, made country-music history as a singer who created hit singles that appealed to both pop and country audiences. Anderson’s signature recording, 1970‘s “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” appeared at a time when the practices of Nashville songwriters had been influenced by the example of tunesmiths such as Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Joe South, the Atlanta-born songwriter and guitarist who wrote “Rose Garden.” An all-purpose entertainer—Anderson appeared on California television program Country Caravan in the early '60s and later became a regular on on The Lawrence Welk Show — Anderson turned South’s song about the challenges of marriage into a Number 1 country hit. “Rose Garden” made Number 3 on Billboard’s pop chart, and it became Anderson’s best-known recording. Over the course of her career, Anderson recorded pop, rock and country songs, but she never duplicated the success of “Rose Garden.”

Lynn Rene Anderson was born Sept. 26, 1947 in Grand Forks, N.D, and grew up in Fair Oaks, Calif., a town near Sacramento. Her parents, Carl and Liz Anderson, were songwriters, and Liz Anderson penned tunes for Del Reeves, Roy Drusky and Bobby Bare. RCA Victor Records signed Liz Anderson on the strength of a 1964 single she had written for Merle Haggard, “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.” The following year, Anderson accompanied her mother to Nashville, where Chart Records executive Bradley “Slim” Williamson signed her to his label.

Liz Anderson wrote her daughter’s first Chart single, 1966‘s “Ride, Ride, Ride,” a two-minute recording that began with a guitar playing reveille, and she also composed “For Better or For Worse,” a single that was released the same year. Anderson’s Chart singles featured background vocals and spare arrangements, as on 1967‘s “If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away),” which sported a folkish acoustic-guitar part. Steel guitarist Lloyd Green, who worked as Chart’s producer and arranger on Anderson’s sessions, contributed a brilliant obbligato to the 1969 single “That’s a No No,” her biggest Chart success.

After signing with Columbia in 1970, Anderson worked with her then-husband, songwriter and producer Glenn Sutton, to record “Rose Garden,” which South had included on his 1969 full-length, Introspect, along with his “Games People Play.” South’s own version of “Games” had gone to Number 12 in early 1969, but Anderson and Sutton transformed “Rose Garden” from an acerbic, slightly downbeat number into a sprightly pop tune that contained elements of social realism. It was a perfect song for an aspiring Nashville crossover artist to cut in 1970. Over the next few years, Anderson became one of country’s biggest stars. She covered songs by John Fogerty, Carole King, Hoyt Axton and the Bee Gees on her '70s albums, and cut Sutton’s “I’m Gonna Write a Song” on her 1971 album You’re My Man. “Folks sit around with their face in a frown / And gripe about the way things are,” she sang, and the tune amounted to a response to the kind of progressive songwriting that South, Kris Kristofferson were doing at the same time, complete with lines about sunshine, love and the patriotism of America’s founding fathers.

She appeared frequently on television shows in the ‘70s, and in 1974 became the first country artist to headline and sell out New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Her training as an equestrian came into play during that event, as she told writer Markos Papadatos earlier this year. “Yeah, I rode a horse down Broadway and posed in front of the marquee,” she said. “I was the first county artist to do that. Before Big & Rich rode a horse that crossed a bridge, I did that a long time ago.” She recorded for MCA and Mercury in the ‘80s and charted her last hit, “How Many Hearts,” in 1989. Anderson cut The Bluegrass Sessions in 2004 and released a gospel record, Bridges, earlier this year. Anderson and Sutton divorced in 1977, and she married Louisiana-born businessman Harold Stream III the following year. She and Stream divorced in 1982. In her later years, Anderson had a series of arrests for driving while intoxicated and for shoplifting, including a 2014 incident in Nashville. She entered the Betty Ford Center that year for treatment. At the time of her death she was in a relationship with Nashville songwriter Mentor Williams.

Although she never matched the success of “Rose Garden,” Anderson created some of the most well-known country-pop fusion of her time. Her career illustrates the way that the demands of commercialism can alter the way audiences perceive the message of songs such as “Rose Garden.” She was a prophet of modern country. As she told writer Mike Carroll in 2013, “Country seems to have evolved into a mixture of country and pop. And a lot of the artists very much sound alike.” A long-time resident of Nashville, Anderson died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after being admitted for pneumonia. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. Funeral services will be held at Nashville’s Woodlawn-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home and Memorial Park, with details pending.