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Believe the hype

Normally a five-star review from Blender is sufficient to send me scurrying in the opposite direction. However, after hearing Portland Oregon incessantly over the past week, I picked up Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose, produced by Jack White.

Holy shit. I cannot believe Loretta Lynn wrote the whole album. She certainly does not sound anywhere close to 70. The songs are lyrical, stark, rough, elegant, heartwrenching and hardly country, yet certainly not generic Johnny Cash alterna-rock. This album is neither a comeback nor a reinvention. It is simply a great artist performing at a peak level with the aid of a crack producer.

You owe it to yourself to give it a listen.

Next day we knew last night got drunk
But we loved enough for the both of us
In the morning when the night had sobered up
It was much too late for the both of us in Oregon