Lynn thinks she’s more songwriter than singer

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By Rick Harmon, Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser | Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:55 AM CDT | () comments

(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Loretta Lynn performs Friday night at the RiverCenter/ Adler Theatre in Davenport.

Most people think of Loretta Lynn as one of country’s greatest singers. But not Lynn.

“I’d rather write songs than sing them,” she said during a telephone interview.

But Lynn, who has written more than 160 songs, isn’t the only one who sees herself as a songwriter first.

On June 19, she will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York City.

“I love to write,” the 73-year-old country star said. “I was just kind of grateful that they brought up that I was a writer because that’s what I really love to do.”

Lynn believes it was songwriting that helped make her a star in the first place.

“You know, I think that was one of the things that really got me my recording contract — that I wrote my own stuff,” she said.

“I think that’s a major reason Zero Records put me on their label. Of course, Zero is what it made me because no one could find the record once they brought it out.”

Although a song from the album “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” became a country hit, the company had such poor distribution that no one could locate a copy of it.

But someone finally did — a bigger record company.

“It wound up doing me a lot of good because that helped me go from Zero Records to Decca, and at that time Decca was one of the biggest country labels there was,” Lynn said.

The rest is history. In fact, Lynn has been one of country music’s most glorious stories. Her career includes four Grammy Awards and 10 Academy of Country Music, or ACM, Awards. To the surprise of no one, she also was named ACM’s “Artist of the Decade” for the 1970s.

Despite the stunning history, Lynn is focused on the future.

The country icon, whose best-selling 1976 autobiography, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” was made into an Oscar-winning film, isn’t just still performing and recording. She’s still writing.

When she releases her new, as-yet unnamed album later this year, at least four of the songs on it will be new ones she has written.

“Some of the songs on the new album will be ones that I have written and some of them will be standards,” said Lynn, who added that they range from songs written four or five years ago to some written four or five weeks ago.

She’s optimistic that her hard work in the studio will pay off — and it’s been hard work.

“I’ve been in the studio about four or five times now recording my new album, and we hope to get a new single off of it,” she said. “But we are still recording and will probably be going back into the studio two or three more times.

“We’ve been working on it three or four months so far and will be releasing it sometime this year.”

She might perform some of the songs on stage, but that will depend on the audience.

“I’ll be performing whatever anyone wants to hear. All they have to do is ask, and if I know it, I’ll sing it. If I don’t, I may let them get up and sing it themselves,” she said with a laugh.

“I usually do what the people say they want to hear, and I think that’s a little different than what most people do, ’cause most of them have a show laid out and that’s what they stick with every day. I can’t do that.”

Of course, there are some songs you know she will sing.

“I like to perform ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man,’ and ‘Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),’ because if I don’t do it, people are going to be upset about it,” she said.

“ ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ — they start hollerin’ out for that with the first song. Of course, I save that one for last. But they holler almost all my songs out.”

That last statement may not be true. Don’t expect her to sing all of her hits. She has had more than 50 of them, including 27 that have gone to No. 1 on the country charts.

Seventeen of her albums have gone No. 1 on the charts.

Kitty Wells became a major country female vocalist in the 1950s, but only Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis and Jean Shepard are generally considered to have become female country stars before Lynn did.

Lynn, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame and soon the Songwriters Hall of Fame, is remarkably humble, but she admits her career may have helped set the tone for many of the female country singers who followed her.

“Well, I think I probably did kind of open the doors for some of them that came into country music later. Most of them probably were singing as long as I had. I just kind of got my foot in the door a little faster. Sometimes you have to speak up for yourself,” she added with a laugh.

if you go

Who: Loretta Lynn

When: 8 p.m. Friday, April 11

Where: RiverCenter/Adler Theatre, Davenport

How much: $54, $44 and $34

Information: (563) 326-8555 or RiverCtr.com

Also on the Web: LorettaLynn.com