Her life is legendary. The coal miner’s daughter was born in Kentucky in 1932, married at 13, raised six kids, taught herself to play a guitar she received as an anniversary present at 24 and went on to record 16 No. 1 songs. Her bestselling autobiography was made into an Academy Award-winning movie.

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Lynn has always been her own woman. She wrote songs about everyday women’s issues from philandering husbands to birth control to double standards divorced women face to being widowed by war. Such feminist viewpoints in songs were unheard of at the time, and some radio stations did their best to keep it that way by refusing to play some of Lynn’s songs in the 1960s and 1970s, but that didn’t stop her from becoming enormously popular in country music. Her material has endeared the Country Music Hall of Famer to rock fans, too, many who discovered her when Jack White of The White Stripes produced her critically-acclaimed 2004 album Van Lear Rose.

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A large crowd turned out to see Lynn on Taste of Chicago’s Country Music Day Friday in Grant Park. Her presence attracted the Court Yard Hounds as the opener. The two Dixie Chicks, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, watched Lynn from the wings of the Petrillo Music Shell after their set, while local badass guitarists Inga Olson and Susie Q. of The Wanton Looks looked on from the pavilion. Lynn has earned a reputation as a loose cannon and you had to wonder how she’d perform at the age of 79. Lynn waltzed onstage in an ornate lavender dress fit for a queen and quickly dashed any such concerns about whether she was up to the task.

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Lynn was in fine voice right from the opener, “They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore.” As she sang the lyrics to the next song, “You’re Lookin’ at Country,” it was like watching a history book come to life. “'Cause if you’re lookin’ at me, you’re lookin’ at country,” Lynn sang, rightfully as fact. Hearing songs such as “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” and “Fist City” were like taking a tour through country music. At one point a member of her band suggested, “Let’s do one that was a big No. 1 hit for you.” “Which one?” Lynn replied.

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The feisty singer was in fine form. The only mistake she seemed to make probably would have went unnoticed had she not brought it up after “Here I Am Again.” “Did I screw up on that one?” she asked her band. “You gave them a little extra,” one of her musicians answered. “I don’t care,” Lynn said with sass before gesturing to the audience. “They don’t care.” The crowd ate it up. Lynn showed she’s still interested in making artistic statements by merging “One’s on the Way” into “The Pill.” She treated everyone to the first song she ever wrong, “Honky Tonk Girl.” “Dear Uncle Sam,” written during the Vietnam War about a wife losing her husband to war, sounded every bit as relevant today.

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Then a reminder came of how deep Lynn’s roots in country history go when she played four songs of her old friend, Patsy Cline – “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “She’s Got You” and “Crazy” – that had some couples dancing in the aisles. Lynn took a one-song break to sit while her band played. She closed with her signature song, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which brought the crowd to its feet. “The most important lady in the history of country music,” a band member announced as Lynn left the stage, leaving those in attendance with the memory of seeing her give a performance worthy of that history in the twilight of her career. 

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The setlist:

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They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore

You’re Lookin’ at Country

When the Tingle Becomes a Chill

I Wanna Be Free

Here I Am Again

You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)

Blue Kentucky Girl

Fist City

Lead Me On

One’s on the Way/The Pill

Honky Tonk Girl

Dear Uncle Sam

Walkin’ After Midnight/I Fall to Pieces

She’s Got You

Crazy

(band song)

Coal Miner’s Daughter

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Start: 6:43 p.m./Finish: 7:31 p.m.

Totals: 15 songs, 48 minutes

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Loretta Lynn

July 1, 2011 @ Taste of Chicago

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