jack white/loretta lynn "Portland Oregon"

Fails my ass. I was listening to this today. What a great great song. That whole record is standing up really well, for what it is. And "Portland, Oregon" was truly one of the best songs from last year.

("Inauthentic"? I guess I know what you're trying to get at, but not in this case. And the lyrics tell a story that is based on events from Loretta's life....)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9FdAISS-YM

It's an impressive performance in which Jack White takes too much screen time.

What's with this album disappearing from the internet??

Came out at the tail end of me living with my parents. Good memories of buying it "for them". RIP

This is why I still have my CD's - if the cloud goes down, I still got Loretta (and everyone else).

I hope Janet's doing well

In the American Masters ep on Lynn, her son (and manager) said he felt that they'd gotten a bad deal with this album, not getting near as much money as they should have given what it sold, and the biggest benefit the Lynn camp saw was an increased demand for her live show at a broader spectrum of venues then they'd been playing.

It sold about 233,000 in its first year, which I guess is pretty good, but since it came out on Interscope, I can see the label screwing them over and claiming a lot of the revenue had to cover the marketing and distribution costs.

I just saw the American Masters again, and what he actually said is that Lynn's people financed the album sessions, and it only sold to (I paraphrase) a smaller audience that wasn't _her audience _, so they didn't get their money back off of royalties.

Which sounds a little suspect, but I guess Interscope put a lot of fingers in the pie, not to mention probably based the deal on overestimated expectations of how it would sell.

Like, I can see the label looking at how well the Cash/Rubin albums did, combining that with how well the White Stripes were doing, and telling the Lynn camp that the album was guaranteed to go Gold and/or Platinum, leading them to agree to an ultimately bad deal based off that.

Yeah I can see that. I used to see cheap copies of that album everywhere, either in the dollar bins or as a cutout or on sale for peanuts on someplace like Amazon, so it kind of implies a lot of stock that was pressed but failed to sell. Shame, it seemed to get a lot of attention. (It actually placed at #3 in the Pazz & Jop poll which is pretty amazing.)

Yeah, she did at least get more interest re shows, which may have recouped some of that---Al.com looked back at coverage (lnks in here, incl. to referenced interview:

Loretta Lynn performed several concerts in Alabama over the years, including some memorable shows in Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery. The country legend, who died on Tuesday at age 90, had always been a big draw in the state. However, when Lynn was in her 70s, she was riding -- and greatly enjoying -- a renewed wave of fame after a 2004 album with Jack White, “Van Lear Rose.”

“I don’t have to work, so I work when I want to,” Lynn said during an interview in October 2009 with AL.com. “I stay home and it bothers me. I’m working pretty hard this month. But I have it good on the road now, not like when I started. I have my bus fixed up just like a home, with five TVs in it. There’s a complete kitchen, a complete bathroom and a half-bathroom. It’s all my own.”
At the time, the singer/songwriter renowned as the First Lady of Country Music was far from ready to retire. “Maybe 20 years from now,” Lynn said.
---from 2009 Birmingham show coverage:
“Lynn just let the crowd pick her songs by shouting out requests like ‘Fist City,’ ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough,’ ‘Honky Tonk Girl,’ ‘Don’t Come Home a’ Drinkin’,’ ‘She’s Got You’ and ‘One’s On the Way,’ which became a medley when Lynn combined it with ‘The Pill.’

“That impromptu approach didn’t faze her or her band, The Coal Miners, but it did cause one bit of confusion when a fan requested ‘Hey Loretta.’ Lynn, thinking the fan wanted to say something to her, replied, ‘What, Honey?’

The voice that’s poured forth more country excellence than anyone not named Williams or Jones is still gut-wrenchingly effective, even on the high notes of ‘Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man.’ But Lynn, 77, did avail herself of a gold chair the majority of her time on stage.

But she had been reliant on more than a chair in '07 show, sometimes later:

“Loretta Lynn might want to start billing her concerts differently -- let’s say, the Coal Miner’s Daughter & Friends,” AL.com said in its review. “Not to take anything away from a majestic figure in country music. But at age 75, Lynn simply doesn’t sing much anymore.

“On Friday night at the Alabama Theatre, more than half of Lynn’s 9 p.m. show was taken up by her band, her twin daughters, her granddaughter and her three backup singers.
“That should have been expected by anyone who saw Lynn perform at City Stages 2005 or three months ago at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center. These days, her appearances are staged to give Lynn, who suffers from shoulder and back problems, ample time to rest.

“But no matter how well the folks in her entourage perform, fans came to see Loretty.”

At the Alabama, she swept on stage in a sequined brown gown and sang a handful of signature tunes: ‘Fist City,’ ‘When the Tingle Becomes a Chill,’ ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man,’ ‘Here I Am Again,’ ‘Table for Two,’’ ‘Don’t Come Home a’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),’ ‘Let Your Love Flow,’ ’Before I’m Over You,’ ‘You’re Lookin’ at Country’ and ‘;Coal Miner’s Daughter.’

“Lynn’s singing isn’t as powerful or consistent as it used to be, but it’s hard to complain about an icon who still can belt and twang. Also, it was satisfying merely to bask in the presence of an old-timey star who bridges Nashville’s present and past. As the hour-long concert proved, Lynn’s earthy good humor and the twinkle in her eye remain intact.”

...NOTE: Lynn originally was scheduled to make her City Stages debut in 2004, the year “Van Lear Rose” was released, but canceled all her shows that June due to back problems.