By Maurice Miner
Used with permission of CMA Close Up News Service.

"I don't look backwards - I look forward. Whatever's passed is passed."

Those words may explain more simply and clearly than any others why, at 69, Loretta Lynn is enjoying some of the highest critical praise of her career - and experiencing newfound commercial success. One of American music's most distinctive voices and cherished personalities has been the focus of renewed attention since she released Van Lear Rose, a new album produced by Jack White of the alternative rock duo the White Stripes.


The buzz began before the album hit stores. But you have to go back to find the genesis of the project - to Lynn's high profile, Coal Miner's Daughter days. She was at her commercial peak and her story reached the ears of White, then a teenager in Detroit. When he and bandmate Meg White finished making their breakout album White Blood Cells in Memphis, they couldn't resist a tourist stop at Lynn's Hurricane Mills, Tenn. ranch. They dedicated the 2001 CD to Lynn and performed her 1973 hit "Rated X" in their live shows.

In the summer of 2002 Lynn's manager, Nancy Russell, gave Lynn a copy of the White Stripes' CD. Lynn was touched by the dedication and sent the Whites a thank-you note and an invitation for dinner. They accepted and months later they shared the bill at a New York City concert.

Russell floated the concept of (Jack) White producing a Lynn album past some industry executives, but it wasn't until the White Stripes started to achieve commercial and critical success that anyone took notice.

In the meantime, Russell encouraged Lynn to make the album.

Lynn financed the project, which White produced with a small group of musicians in a non-descript studio (the Nashville home studio is pictured on the album cover). For the first time in her career, Lynn owned the rights and had written every song on the album.

"She was so excited," White recalled. "We'd finish takes and she'd say, 'Jack, I can't wait for this record to come out.' She'd hold my hand and say, 'This is gonna really shake 'em up.'"

Lynn was inspired by the enthusiasm of the Gen X-er. "I think one day he'll probably be a bigger producer than he is a singer and let the singing go because he loved it. I could watch him, and this is what he loved to do."

Russell shopped the completed project to labels on both coasts and in Nashville. All were interested, but it was Russell's last stop, a meeting with Jimmy Iovine, the venerable chief of Los Angeles-based Interscope Records, a division of the Universal Music Group, that resulted in a deal. Iovine, whose long career included developing acts U2 and Eminem, licensed Van Lear Rose for release and, by the time the White Stripes won a GRAMMY in February, Lynn's new album was scheduled for an April release date.

Everyone involved with Van Lear Rose knew they had something special. But the question remained - how would they let her fans know about it, especially given Country radio's decade-long reluctance to play artists of her tenure. The solution came from print and television - all it took was a listen for editorial decision-makers at Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and GQ to offer coveted space.

Performances by Lynn and White followed on "David Letterman" and "Today." A release party, the first of Lynn's career, drew people from the Nashville music industry. And Lynn's friends stepped up in an effort to stir interest at Country radio in a syndicated radio special showcasing the CD. Martina McBride served as host while Alan Jackson, Shania Twain and Kenny Chesney offered thoughts on Lynn and her new music. Lynn achieved the highest pop album chart position of her career, and her music found its way onto alternative and college radio stations.

"Her stuff is just so real, and it always has been. They've really done some magic on there," Jackson said after hearing Van Lear Rose. "Songs from her life ... some of the best stuff I've heard her do in years."

With Van Lear Rose, the first woman to be named the CMA Entertainer of the Year (in 1972) reminded everyone that she's as timely, as relevant and as vibrant a singer and songwriter as she's ever been.

"I can't help but look at Loretta and go, Wow! This has to be why I ended up writing the type of songs that I write ... wanting to be on the cutting edge, open and expressive as a female," said Twain. In the music of Van Lear Rose, she hears echoes of what made her a lifelong fan. "We both grew up poor ... I related very, very much to female artists who wrote about their hardships. And I think that so affected the way I ended up."