Loretta Lynn & Jack White "Portland, Oregon"

[prenatt1166]

WOW!

This duet is an unexpected and welcome breath of fresh air!

Hopefully, country and some other formats will not let this slip by.  I think the curiousity factor will help.

"Van Lear Rose" is due on April 27th.

Track List:

1.      VAN LEAR ROSE           3:50
2.      PORTLAND, OREGON                3:50
3.      TROUBLE ON THE LINE     2:22
4.      FAMILY TREE                     3:04
5.      HAVE MERCY ON ME                2:35
6.      HIGH ON A MOUNTAIN              2:44
7.      LITTLE RED SHOES                2:44
8.      GOD HAS NO MISTAKES     1:45
9.      WOMEN'S PRISON          4:17
10.     THIS OLD HOUSE          1:57
11.     MAD MRS. LEROY BROWN    3:39
12.     MISS BEING MRS.         2:50
13.     STORY OF MY LIFE                2:40

Also of note:  Apparently, "Van Lear Rose" is the first album to date to receive a 5 star review from Blender magazine.

:)

[prenatt1166]

Here is a link to Jack White performing the title track to Loretta Lynn's new album.

Jack White  "Van Lear Rose"

:)

[WhySoSerious?]

This is being released on Interscope next month. I was listening to it last week. Sounds good, though I'm unsure of commercial prospects.

[prenatt1166]

FMQB has this listed under AAA for May 3.  Should I have posted this in the other forum?

???

EDIT: Thank you! :)

[WhySoSerious?]

www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=19537

Lynn, White Ready Van Lear Rose

Country star to release first album in four years with White Stripe producing

Loretta Lynn will release Van Lear Rose on April 27th on Interscope; the record is her first in four years and was produced last year by White Stripes frontman Jack White.
The Kentucky-born Lynn, who turns seventy on April 14th, wrote thirteen new originals for the record, which takes its title from a new song about her mother. Lynne says that the record will be a bit of a departure for fans of her three decades of iconic honky tonk. "The songs are all songs that I wrote and they're country," she says, "but a little bit different. The sound is different than anything I've done before, and it's been great working with Jack."

White and Lynn first hooked up after her manager slipped her a copy of the group's 2001 album White Blood Cells, which was dedicated to Lynn, whom White had never met. Lynn invited White and bandmate Meg White to her Tennessee ranch, and soon after the Stripes and Lynn shared a bill at a New York City gig. Lynn and White recorded the album in Nashville during two sessions, one in June and one in September.

"I'm impressed but not surprised that she sings better now than she ever has," Jack White says. "She proved to me again and again that she was the greatest female singer-songwriter of the twentieth century, and she's got more to say and an amazing way to say it than most people nowadays. Her stories are cuttingly acute and witty -- she's a clever angel. Her songwriting is impeccable, She's so real I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

Rose is already garnering Lynn the most attention she has received since her early-Seventies run as one of country music's hitmaking queens with a string of brassy singles like "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "Fist City" and "You Ain't Woman Enough." A video has already been shot for the first single, "Portland, Oregon," and Lynn has also been in talks to appear on Saturday Night Live.

ANDREW DANSBY and DAVID SWANSON

[singingsparrow]

What a coincidence! I'm moving to Portland, Oregon this summer! :)

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[thedualityofman]

Portland can suck on the ole proverbial guiche.

I spent what seems like half my childhood up there...

[insect2]

The said:

Portland can suck on the ole proverbial guiche.

I spent what seems like half my childhood up there...

Agreed. Even though I've never been there, I can probably say with certainty that it isn't any different than around here. Although, it's probably more boring than here, since they only have one professional sports team, and they don't have the EMP.

[singingsparrow]

insect2 said:

Agreed. Even though I've never been there, I can probably say with certainty that it isn't any different than around here. Although, it's probably more boring than here, since they only have one professional sports team, and they don't have the EMP.

On the contrary, a city doesn't need a whole bunch of professional sports teams to be entertaining.

I'm actually moving there as I am fascinated by what many can do there. They've got the largest weekend outdoor market in the nation, the largest rose production (Portland is the "City of Roses"), the riverside and Hawthorne Avenue is filled with a diverse mix of art and shops, you can do water-sports in the river that goes through the city on almost any day, it's an exciting place to me.

The only real bummer is it rains a lot there. The average number of sunny days in Portland a year is 142. Compare that to 240 in Denver or even more in Phoenix.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[insect2]

SingingSparrow said:

On the contrary, a city doesn't need a whole bunch of professional sports teams to be entertaining.

For me, it helps.

SingingSparrow said:

The only real bummer is it rains a lot there. The average number of sunny days in Portland a year is 142. Compare that to 240 in Denver or even more in Phoenix.

LOL, yep that sure sounds like the Northwest. However, the upside is it hardly rains during the summer. Last summer, it was practically 90 consecutive days of sun here. Some days it even reached 90 degrees!

[Radical347]

SingingSparrow said:

The only real bummer is it rains a lot there. The average number of sunny days in Portland a year is 142. Compare that to 240 in Denver or even more in Phoenix.

True, but I'd rather have one helluva rainy winter than an asininely cold one which you won't get in Portland.

Portland is a great place. For its size, it's not incredibly exciting but it's good enough. The people there are said to be very friendly and down to earth, and you can breathe the air. I don't think Portland is that much like Seattle other than they're both rainy. Seattle is more of what one imagines as a "city," (although the city of Portland is bigger than the city of Seattle) has more culture, and is probably known better, whereas Portland is more focused on artsy stuff and has a rather sizeable new age market.

[WhySoSerious?]

Anyway....back on topic.

This song kicks ass. I finally got a copy of the album today and the whole thing sounds great. Some songs have country potential, but overall I think it'll be hard to place at radio. I'm hoping Interscope finds a way. The album was blasting from every office I passed today, so I think the label is firmly behind it.

[prenatt1166]

The album was blasting from every office I passed today, so I think the label is firmly behind it.

Out of curiousity, do you think this project will have award (Grammy) potential?

[WhySoSerious?]

prenatt1166 said:

Out of curiousity, do you think this project will have award (Grammy) potential?

I would say yes, but it's all going to depend on if this album has a higher profile than a typical Loretta Lynn album. If it does and it's unanimously hailed then I could see Grammy action.

It does have a novelty factor in its favor. Just the thought of Jack White teaming with Loretta Lynn makes people interested.

[prenatt1166]

Three of the album tracks can be heard HERE

VAN LEAR ROSE
PORTLAND, OREGON
FAMILY TREE

:)

[prenatt1166]

(NASHVILLE SKYLINE is a column by CMT/CMT.com Editorial Director Chet Flippo.)

What Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash, Jack White of the White Stripes is trying to do for Loretta Lynn. Her resulting new album Van Lear Rose -- set for release Tuesday (April 27) on Interscope -- is a dramatic departure in some ways but a logical continuation of her work in many other ways. Loretta has been a quiet revolutionary throughout her career but -- just as Cash did not realize what remained to be tapped in his artistry -- she did not sense the unrealized potential at her command.

The White Stripes have long admired Lynn, and White met Lynn, started hanging out with her and saw before him a remarkable career that appeared to be over or stuck in a rut of tours and tired albums. He told her he'd like to produce an album with her. The result is raw, almost-primitive, grab-you-by-the-throat music that ranges from traditional, stark Loretta declarations of truths to psychedelia to grunge. This album will shock some country fans, should delight most and will certainly puzzle some. But it presents Lynn's unique sensitivity and remarkable voice in new settings that are remarkably receptive and resonating to her. As she sings in the title song, it's "a beauty to behold/Like a diamond in the coal."

The title song, "Van Lear Rose," refers to the little Kentucky town where her father worked in the coal mines. The song is a gorgeous bit of Lynn reminiscing at her best about her father telling her tales about her mother, who was the rose of Van Lear, Ky., and the "belle of Johnson County."

Years ago, Lynn became puzzled as to why feminists were showing up at her shows and seeking interviews and looking for the fount of her wisdom. Of course, they had discovered a strong-minded woman who on her own was figuring out her life. She was a one-woman, do-it-yourself, frontier feminist movement. She's still charting her own musical course, whether lamenting her newly found widowhood in "Miss Being Mrs." Or chasing down a wandering husband by limo in "Mad Mrs. Leroy Brown."

"Family Tree" is vintage Loretta Lynn at her best. Just as she did in female anthems such as "You Ain't Woman Enough," Lynn is the aggrieved wife going after the woman who's seducing her husband: "Woman, you don't know me/But you can bet I know you/Everybody in this whole darn town knows you too/I brought along our little babies/'Cause I wanted them to see/The woman that's burnin' down our family tree." Unlike the feisty, ferocious Lynn of "Fist City," Lynn now sounds too resigned to fight: "No, I didn't come to fight/He was a better man I might/But I wouldn't dirty my hands on trash like you/Bring out the babies' daddy/That's who they come to see/Not the woman that is burnin' down our family tree."

She can also veer into a sheer psychedelic drinking-flirtation song, such as "Portland, Oregon." It takes me back to the Fillmore West in San Francisco circa 1967, to the sounds of Janis Joplin jamming with the Quicksilver Messenger Service. This duet (with White) is a peculiarly endearing tale of barroom flirtation and cheap romance in Portland, where they're slugging down sloe gin fizz by the pitcher. "Portland, Oregon and sloe gin fizz/If that ain't love, then tell me what is."

White has said that he considers Lynn to be "the greatest female singer-songwriter of the 20th century." It's hard to argue with that, but I do have a two-word reply: Dolly Parton. Even so, Lynn stands alone as a fearless, trailblazing country music pioneer. What White has enabled her to accomplish here is remarkable, yielding what may yet be a career-transforming work. Hard as it is to comprehend, this is the first time in her 44-year recording career that Lynn has written every song on one of her albums. Or, more correctly, been allowed to write all the songs on her own album.

Just as Rick Rubin let Johnny Cash be Johnny Cash, Jack White now allows Loretta Lynn to be Loretta Lynn. What could be better than that?

[WhySoSerious?]

4 Stars from Rolling Stone and an "A" from Spin.

The Rolling Stone review:

No matter who you are, one thing is for sure: You ain't woman enough to take Loretta Lynn's man. Miss Loretta has been a country legend for more than forty years, but she still sings with all the passion of the blue Kentucky girl who busted out of Butcher Hollow, the coal miner's daughter who got married at thirteen and fought her way to fame. She's always had the toughest, meanest, fiercest, warmest and sexiest voice in country music. But on her fantastic Van Lear Rose, she's got a new man named Jack White, the mastermind of the White Stripes, and together they deliver the answer to her fans' prayers: a classic Loretta Lynn album. There's no Nashville glitz, no crossover schlock -- as the lady used to sing, you're lookin' at country.
The surprise is that Lynn has started writing her own songs again. As she says in the liner notes, "This is the first time I wrote all the songs on a record, and I hope you like 'em." In the Sixties and Seventies, Lynn wrote her sharpest hits -- anthems of down-home pride such as "Coal Miner's Daughter" as well as two-fisted tantrums including "You Ain't Woman Enough," "Rated X" and "Your Squaw Is on the Warpath." If all Jack White did was get her writing again, that would have been enough. But he has juiced up her muse, keeping the mostly acoustic instrumentation spare and sweet, adding his electric-guitar kick to the fiddle, dobro and pedal steel. Listen to the way she yowls the bluesy sex stomp "Have Mercy on Me," dueling with White's guitar until she sounds like Loretta Zeppelin -- when was the last time you heard anyone sing with this much libido and fury? Let alone a woman pushing seventy?

The White Stripes have always idolized Loretta Lynn -- they dedicated White Blood Cells to her, and Meg sings "Rated X" onstage. It would have been fun to hear Jack and Lynn remake her Conway Twitty duet "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly." But he's too gracious to butt in -- he just gives her room to do her thing, like Johnny Winter did for Muddy Waters on his great comeback Hard Again. Their one vocal duet is a killer, "Portland, Oregon," where they sing about a hard-core drinking-and-shagging night: "Portland, Oregon, and sloe-gin fizz/If that ain't love, then tell me what is."

In "Mrs. Leroy Brown," she rides a pink limo to the honky-tonk to get all Von Bondie on the blonde who messed with Mrs. Leroy Brown's man; Jack's got the mug shot, but Loretta's the scary one. "Little Red Shoes" is a spoken-word ramble through a dreamlike childhood memory over atmospheric guitar twang -- it sounds like nothing she's ever done before.

Lynn's husband, Doo, who died in 1996, is an emotional presence throughout the album. "Miss Being Mrs." slams home because she's so forthright about the loneliness of life as a widow: "I took off my wedding band/And put it on my right hand/I miss being Mrs. tonight." It evokes "This Haunted House," the song she wrote for Patsy Cline's husband back in 1964, as well as the love songs she wrote about Doo while he was alive, and it's a heart-rending tribute.

Loretta Lynn hasn't made an album this rich since her 1977 concept tribute to Cline, I Remember Patsy -- an album recorded when Jack White was two years old. It almost feels strange to make a fuss about Van Lear Rose, since the music soars because of its modesty and gentle touch. Lynn and White weren't straining to make history, just a damn good Loretta Lynn album. But it sure sounds classic anyway. Anybody who worships Loretta Lynn dreams about being able to thank her for all the music, but Jack White has pulled off the ultimate fan fantasy: He's helped her make the album we all dreamed she would make.

ROB SHEFFIELD
(RS 948, May 13, 2004)

[WhySoSerious?]

My favorite songs from the album are "Portland, Oregon", "Have Mercy On Me Baby", "Little Red Shoes" and "Mrs. Leroy Brown".

[prenatt1166]

TCorey posted more reviews here:

pulsemusic.proboards12.com/index.cgi?board=news&action=display&thread=1082828233

Should all discussion be moved to that forum?

[Matt4319]

Discussion of the song here, discussion of the album over there.

[Evergreen]

Matt4319 said:

Discussion of the song here, discussion of the album over there.

They're basically one in the same.

[tobedawg]

Noah.. Congrats on your move.. I'm actually considering moving to Oregon too.. I went up there a few years ago.. IT's a nice place.. Nicer than where I live, i.e California..

I'm really excited about this Loretta Lynn CD.. Haven't heard the song with Jack White yet, but I can't wait too!! I like the whole older-country sound (artists like Johnny, Merle, and Hank)..

[Matt4319]

www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=66687

[prenatt1166]

I'm not sure if I'm accessing the right information on Mediabase, but is WMMM in Madison, WI the first AAA station to add "Portland, Oregon"?

[WhySoSerious?]

prenatt1166 said:

I'm not sure if I'm accessing the right information on Mediabase, but is WMMM in Madison, WI the first AAA station to add "Portland, Oregon"?

Not sure, but it's not doing so well here. It's getting more attention at Alternative where it's at #97 with a +43 bullet.

[craig]

yes i've lived in portland for 12 years now and am a native of oregon have been all over the world and portland and oregon kick ass for beuty and fun back on topic love this song

[reception]

www1.allaccess.com/sounds/loreport.ram

[EvanJ]

launch.yahoo.com/artist/default.asp?artistID=1016409 has the video.

[WhySoSerious?]

EvanJ said:

launch.yahoo.com/artist/default.asp?artistID=1016409 has the video.

Yeah I was very disappointed by it. This song had the potential for a stunning video, but this one is just boring.

[Radical347]

I tried to like this song. I really did. But now I can't get over how horrible it is. Ugh, Loretta sounds like crap. And the first two or so minutes are just bad, it sounds like a fire drill or something.