Music

Loretta Lynn

June 20, Texas Station

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Lynn: dressed for success.
Photo: Ryan Olbrysh

Judging from the extremely enthusiastic crowd response at Loretta Lynn’s concert Saturday at Texas Station, the legendary country singer could have simply sat on the stage and waved, and people would have been thrilled. Cries of “We love you, Loretta!” rang out throughout the show. At 74, Lynn is more than a little fragile, although she’s bounced back from some recent health problems, and she spent most of her stage time (a little less than an hour) seated.

The show opened with performances by members of the extended Lynn clan, including daughter Patsy Lynn, son Ernest Ray Lynn and son-in-law Philip Russell (granddaughter Tayla Lynn showed up later for a rather abysmal tarted-up version of her grandmother’s “Rated X”), and Lynn had plenty of help in the vocal department later on as well, with guitarist Bart Hansen and a trio of male backup singers each taking over lead vocals for a song or two.

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Loretta Lynn
Three stars

Among these various distractions (and that’s really all they were), Lynn ran through most of her best-known songs, including classics like “Fist City,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and the autobiographical “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which closed the brief show. She was a little timid at first, but once she let loose, her voice sounded strong and clear and only slightly diminished with age.

Although the setlist was composed exclusively of older material, Lynn did throw in a little contemporary resonance, swapping “Michelle” (Obama) for “Jackie” (Kennedy) in “One’s on the Way” and breaking out the vaguely antiwar Vietnam-era song “Dear Uncle Sam.” That was almost enough to make up for the blatant preachiness during “God Bless America Again,” with one of Lynn’s backup singers rambling about “putting the Bible back in the classroom” and other religious-right nonsense. The audience cheered loudly for that too, but Lynn’s mere presence could clearly inspire enthusiasm for anything.

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