A few weeks before her 89th birthday,Loretta Lynnjust released her 50th studio album,Still Woman Enough.
What keeps you going, and what inspired you to do this album?
Singing and writing are who I am.
It makes me feel alive and happy.
You’ve said Coal Miner’s Daughter is your favorite song.
Why does it mean so much to you, and why did you remake it in spoken word form?
Well, Coal Miner’s Daughter is the story of my life and started out as spoken word.
It was my daughter Patsy and John Carter Cash’s idea to record it that way.
I love the way it turned out.
What have been the highest and lowest points of your career?
I think the highest point of my career was in the late 70s.
1 songs, a best-selling book and a movie made about my life.
But I think it was also the lowest point for me as well.
Life gets away from you so fast when you move fast.
I didn’t get to enjoy it like I wished I would’ve.
How have you spent time in isolation during the pandemic, and what did you miss most?
I think like most everybody I miss seeing my family during thepandemic.
I have a big family and it’s been hard not being together.
I also missed not having the grandkids running all over the place during Christmas and the holidays.
I’m just ready for this to all be behind us.
You rose from poverty to become one of the biggest superstars in country music history.
How would you advise young female country singers hoping to get a foot in the door?
My advice is don’t give up.
When you stop dreaming, you stop living.
Edna Gundersen, a regular AARP music critic, was the longtime pop critic forUSA Today.
Here are 10 of her best, from her debut single in 1960 to a stirring ballad from 2016.
Strains of Taps" suggest the story doesn’t end well.
It marked the seventh time a solo female artist topped the country chart.
Fist City (1968)
Again, art imitated life in a gritty and humorous No.
1 hair-pulling hit directed at women who chased her husband while the singer was away on tour.
Who’s Gonna Miss Me?
(2016)
A somber song with spare acoustic guitar and fiddle ponders an aching universal question.
In her case, the answer is, Who isn’t?"
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