The NY Times disagrees with you, Hutch.
A Queen of Country Holds Court in Concert
By JON CARAMANICA
Published: August 4, 2008
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. ?? Four songs into her set at the Bergen Performing Arts Center here on Friday night Loretta Lynn, one of the toughest-minded and sweetest-voiced singers in the history of country music, needed to rest. A back operation had been causing her pain, she said, so would those in the audience mind if she performed the remainder of the show sitting down? They did not, so she called for her daughter Peggy, who was offstage, to bring her a chair.
Loretta Lynn in a show at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, N.J., where she played a set that ended with ??Coal Miner??s Daughter? and featured family members as well as her band.
Ms. Lynn, who is 73, is well looked after these days, and on this night she was surrounded by caretakers. Her son Ernest Ray, playing guitar in the band, bantered with her onstage. After ??Your Squaw Is on the Warpath,? when she began to ramble on about her mother??s American Indian heritage, she was swiftly interrupted by her bandleader, Bart Hansen, who asked if he could introduce the band. And one of her granddaughters, who couldn??t have been much older than 10, came out to sing Tom Petty??s ??Free Fallin?? ? and then gave her grandmother a hug and a kiss.
Four years ago Ms. Lynn released her most recent collection of original material, ??Van Lear Rose,? which was produced, elegantly, by Jack White of the White Stripes. That record, which won the 2005 Grammy for best country album, gave Ms. Lynn a flash of creative vitality and an audience beyond country nostalgists.
But on this sometimes difficult night there was little evidence of either. In her chair, its arms covered by the fullness of her lavender, rhinestone-splashed dress, Ms. Lynn was in moments discomfitingly frail. Her voice was unsteady, like a radio station coming in and out of reception. And her short songs, most topping out at around two minutes, felt even shorter. They required little stamina, but it often felt like Ms. Lynn barely had even that.
Through all this, though, Ms. Lynn??s once radical songs proved durable. There was blistering humor in ??One??s on the Way? (even though Ms. Lynn forgot some lyrics) and vicious spark in ??Fist City? and ??Don??t Come Home a-Drinkin?? (With Lovin?? on Your Mind).? And at the disjointed set??s conclusion Ms. Lynn??s signature song, the autobiographical ??Coal Miner??s Daughter,? arrived like a punch. It was of the night??s few moments of certainty.
Midshow Ms. Lynn encouraged members of the crowd to shout out requests, which they??d been doing unprompted, making the show more like a rowdy town-hall meeting. ??I may not sing it,? she said, ??but it??ll give you a chance to holler.?
And holler they did: ??Loretta? Would you sing ??Amazing Grace??? ? ??Hey, Loretta! I??m from Ireland!?
Some requests she embraced, like ??I??m a Honky Tonk Girl? and ??Somebody Somewhere (Don??t Know What He??s Missin?? Tonight).? But others eluded her. ??It??ll Be Open Season on You,? she said, ??was done 30 years ago, and I can??t remember it.? Multiple calls for ??Van Lear Rose? also went unanswered. ??Go home and play the record,? she said, half joking.
??I can??t remember the music,? she told the crowd amiably, if a bit absently. Then she turned just a few degrees toward the band. ??Play something we know,? she implored.
