When Loretta Lynn invites you to her 85th birthday party, you go. And when that birthday party is at the Ryman, you put on your Good Friday best and get down to the Mother Church good and early for what promises to be a memorable night.
So The Spin went, and remarkable it was. For the first night of her two-night stint at the Ryman, Lynn appeared to have half of her extended family on hand, literally waiting in the wings to pay tribute to their shimmering matriarch. A couple of special guests like Martina McBride were on hand, too, for a show that might have been a little short on cohesion, but was off the charts when it came to humor and heart.
Songwriter Shawn Camp, who's penned hits for the likes of Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton (as well as Jimmy Buffett and Toby Keith), opened the show. He and his crack band blazed through hits like "Two Piña Coladas," which Camp wrote for Brooks' 1997 album Sevens, as well as new tunes. Later in the evening, Camp would return to the stage to perform with Lynn on "I'm Dying for Someone to Live For," a song the pair wrote together for her forthcoming album Wouldn't It Be Great, which is due in August (and will be celebrated with another pair of shows).
Shortly after Camp left the stage, Lynn's daughter Patsy Lynn Russell, who served as the evening's de facto emcee, came on for a brief introduction. "I can't think of a better place to have a birthday party than the Ryman," she said, to rapturous applause. She went on to offer highlights of her mother's incredible career, which over the course of 57 years has spawned a jaw-dropping 48 studio albums (counting Great and 2016's Full Circle) as well as numerous compilations and live releases, with worldwide sales of some 45 million records.
Before bringing Lynn herself out, Russell introduced Lynn's band the Coal Miners, who played a faithful version of Merle Haggard's 1969 classic "Okie From Muskogee." Granddaughters Tayla Lynn and Emmy Rose Russell performed quick tributes to their grandmother, with Russell, a high school senior, offering up a touching tune called "Unwinding the Strings," written about a famed guitar Lynn gave her.
Soon, Lynn herself was introduced, walked out by family members to a standing ovation and cheers of "Happy birthday!" Seated and kitted out in a scintillating turquoise gown, she opened with "They Don't Make ’Em Like My Daddy," the title track from the 1974 album that also spawned "Trouble in Paradise" and "Behind Closed Doors." The band wasted no time between songs, blazing through "You're Lookin' at Country," "When the Tingle Becomes a Chill" and "I Wanna Be Free" before Lynn addressed the audience.
"I'm 26 years old, y'all just keep forgetting," she joked, before the audience broke out in a spontaneous performance of "Happy Birthday" for Lynn, joined by a chorus of voices from the small family reunion at the side of the stage.
While Lynn's voice was strong as ever, it was her fiery wit and behind-the-scenes anecdotes of her storied career that stole the show. After performing her 1965 single "Blue Kentucky Girl," she admitted, "That's my all-time favorite song, even over 'Coal Miner's Daughter.' " She went on to explain that the song was written by a janitor, Johnny Mullins, who didn't have to be a janitor much longer after the song hit No. 7 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart.
Introducing "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)," she joked that her late husband Oliver Lynn, the subject of many of her songs, told her, "Girls won't buy this record." (They did.)
To borrow the title from Lynn's 2016 record, a "full circle" moment came when she performed "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," the first song she ever wrote. It was also the song she performed at her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1960, wearing, as she recalled, a dress that cost just a dollar. She remembered the show as the point at which her career became a whirlwind that left her very little time to look back.
Martina McBride and Loretta Lynn
The rest of the show had the air of celebratory chaos, beginning with a surprise appearance by Martina McBride, who gave Lynn yellow roses — her favorite — and ended up performing, somewhat reluctantly, "I Saw the Light" and a reprise of "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)."
After McBride's appearance, Lynn slowed down her eager band to spend more time chatting with the audience, fielding requests and making feisty cracks about the "folks from Sony Records" who'd come down from New York to see the show. "They're bugging the devil out of me," she laughed.
While she couldn't always remember the lyrics to fan requests (the woman has written hundreds of songs over nearly six decades, after all), she made a hell of an effort to cater to a crowd. It was a crowd who, with near-constant cheers of "happy birthday" and "Coal Miner's Daughter," perhaps felt they were in the presence of their own mother figure — albeit a musical one.
Toward the end of the set, during which Lynn was periodically joined by sisters Peggy Sue Lynn and Crystal Gayle, she indulged fans and played some of her biggest hits, including 1975's landmark song "The Pill," 1968's "Fist City" and, at long last, her 1969 signature piece "Coal Miner's Daughter," which closed out the show.
The night's set list might have been all over the place, but what good birthday party isn't? What it lacked in consistency it more than made up for in pure joy from the crowd, Lynn's family and — more than anyone else — the legendary artist herself. The birthday celebration doubled as a career retrospective, honoring a living legend who left Butcher Hollow, Ky., and changed the world, but never forgot where she came from — and who, even at 85, still has spirit to spare.
In The Spin — the Scene's live-review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.
