Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose

Regardless of opinions about White Stripes leader Jack White's credentials to produce country-music queen Loretta Lynn, there's no denying that Van Lear Rose significantly kick-started Lynn's career both commercially and artistically.

In a move similar to Rick Rubin's 1990s Johnny Cash productions, White enlists members of his garage-rock cohorts the Greenhornes, along with a couple of country ringers, to back Lynn, giving her the grittiest, most rock-tinged production of her long reign.Encouraged to come up with an album's worth of original tunes for the very first time, Lynn sounds plucky and full of fire.

Her marvelous voice is as powerful and graceful as ever, as the septuagenarian singer gamely leads the band of youngsters through honky-tonk burners, bluegrass-tinged acoustic numbers, and even an evocative spoken-word recitation. Closer in spirit to Lynn's spunky '60s classics than anything she'd released in decades, Van Lear Rose is built to reassemble the faithful and snare some new ears as well.

• Van Lear Rose
• Portland, Oregon
• Trouble On The Line
• Family Tree
• Have Mercy On Me
• High On A Mountain
• Little Red Shoes
• God Has No Mistakes
• Women's Prison
• This Old House
• Mad Mrs. Leroy Brown
• Miss Being Mrs.
• Story Of My Life