Eilen Jewell Butcher Holler Honors Loretta Lynn

EILEN JEWELL
Butcher Holler: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn

Signature Sounds
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In the 1960s Loretta Lynn was the biggest star in country music. Her glow was fading a bit by the time Sissy Spacek portrayed her in the 1980 biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter. Get ready for the next resurrection—Eilen Jewell’s stunning 2010 tribute to Lynn is sure to spark interest. Jewell covers a dozen Lynn classics, including “You’re Looking at Country,” “Whispering Sea,” and “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” but it’s the racier material that really stands the test of time. Lynn knew hard times; she was married at 13 and had four of her six kids by the time she was 19. She stayed married, though her husband cheated in her repeatedly and often told interviewers that he never hit her without getting hit back. She sang about all of this, with a plastered on smile framed by seriously big hair.

Jewell shines on Lynn’s tougher material. She offers a kick-butt “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” some wink-wink naughtiness on “Deep as Your Pocket,” and hints at violence in “Fist City” and “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind),” songs that remind us of how gutsy Lynn’s repertoire was for its time. Jewell is smooth and swingy where Lynn was twang and honky tonk but, if anything, Jewell—ably insisted by Johnny Sciascia’s walking bass lines, Jason Beck’s slap percussion, and Jerry Miller’s robust guitar—enhances Lynn’s do-me-wrong-and-I’ll-do-you-worse defiance. This is the kind of album that makes you look into his eyes and smile as throw a right hook to the bastard’s jaw.