Loretta Lynn RIP

Loretta Lynn passed away this week at the age of 90. It made me a little sad and I had to play some of her albums this afternoon when I found out and I'm sure I'll play more tonight and probably tomorrow too. 

I never listened to any country western music as a kid or a teenager. I should qualify that statement because I did listen to a lot of country music when I was 18 and 19. That is because at that time I was in the US Navy and most of the other sailors I served with were from the South, the Mid-West and the West and they were all very big country music fans. I probably first heard Loretta Lynn sing while I was in boot camp where the one hour a night radio time was always playing country top 40 as voted for by everyone in the barracks. The closest I came to listening to country music before my Navy years was maybe some Byrds albums like Sweetheart of the Rodeo. 

In 1971 while serving on the USS Portland I had a friend who slept in the bunk across from me who was a very big fan of Loretta Lynn and had a little cassette player for her albums. She had four albums released that year including her classic Coal Miner's Daughter which my friend played constantly. Throughout my four years in the Navy I heard a lot of country & western music and plenty of Loretta Lynn.

I would go on to be a big fan of country music in all of its forms and would have a substantial amount of albums in my collection.

Loretta Lynn albums in my collection:

• Honky Tonk Girl: The Loretta Lynn Collection, 1994 - 3 CD set
• The Definitive Collection of Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, 2005 - 2 CD set
• Van Leer Rose, 2004
• Full Circle, 2016

She also appeared in several of my country music various artists collections such as the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music which was a 4 CD set released in 1990.