To look at Nikki Lane and Loretta Lynn on the sofa of Lynn’s parlor at her ranch house at Hurricane Mills, TN, the physical resemblance the that the first lady of country music and the steadily rising first lady of outlaw country share is obvious. Both are dark-haired beauties, with their own iconic sense of fashion. Both are quicker on the draw than a shotgun blast to offer their own take on any subject. Digging down deeper, to places of artistry and heart, both these women of song know about loving men, and know about letting them go, too. Their songs share the shout of a female voice telling the truth of life, love, and the unavoidable pain while celebrating the purest joys.
The independent ladies shared one of Loretta Lynn’s most beloved “tell-off” classics on “Saturday Sessions” for “CBS This Morning” on April 29.
Sisterhood and some fur
Loretta Lynn led into “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” the mood as cozy and natural as the two joined with the fellas for Saturday night supper and ice cream. There’s even a snoozing dog in between the singers for cuddles. Not a smidge of phony smiles or staging here, apart from the microphones. One of the very competent pickers is Jonathan Tyler, of Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights. He was forging his own identity on the music scene just about a year after Nikki Lane arrived in LA to make her name in fashion.
In a sense, she did. She spent all of the “two grand” with which she arrived in a week on Ventura Boulevard. Spite and arrogance united to fuel the young anti-heroine of country, spurred on by the musician boyfriend who left her to make his album. “I'll make a record, too,” she was completely confident, even though she couldn't play guitar “even a tiny bit.” Six months after that spurning boyfriend left, she had a record deal, and the road called.
Loretta Lynn knows well the toll the road can take. Her husband, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, was partner, manager, and premiere cheerleader through miles of radio station stops to get her songs heard, and he also was there to pull his wife off the road when her health was at stake. The title of Nikki Lane’s latest album is “Highway Queen” because she’s played 400 gigs with none turned down.
It's harder to pull away from home now that she and Tyler share a life together in and out of the studio, and onstage. Lane still makes her terms clear, as the title song reiterates, “the highway queen don’t need no king.” Nikki can expand her creative talents in all realms now that she owns her own fashion boutique in Nashville, High-Class Hillbilly.
“It feels like we've always known each other,” Loretta relates of her relationship with Lane. The friends first united last Memorial Day, when Lane played at Lynn’s ranch. No wonder Loretta’s pooch knew when to give the perfect nod to Nikki in the duet.
More stages, new album
While Nikki Lane will be taking the Stagecoach Country Music Festival this weekend, Loretta Lynn has a lot to look forward to on her musical horizons.
A new studio album, described as “deeply personal,” will release on August 18 on the Sony Legacy Recordings label. The compilation is titled, “Wouldn't It Be Great,” and follows up last year’s acclaimed, Grammy-nominated “Full Circle” from Lynn. At 85, this classy, country queen is still in her musical prime, and Nikki Lane has more to discover in her musical pilgrimage.
