Well Portland, Oregon and sloe gin fizz If that ain't love then tell me what is...

I’m an album guy. I always have been. Even in my days of listening to the cheesy pop music on the radio, I would never say, “man, I’ve got to get that single.” This has led to some really bad album purchases with a ton of songs I have only listened to once or twice, but nonetheless I have remained steadfast in wanting to hear songs in the context of their respective albums. Having said that, I am aware that some artists are stronger suited for singles. The one “non-album” item that I do invest in from time to time is the greatest hits collection. This is usually with artists that I like, but aren’t that familiar with. Some artists are only good for a greatest hits album; maybe two if they stick around long enough. A lot of country music is like that. There are some good country album artists, but for the most part it is a strictly singles genre.

Loretta Lynn's All-Time Greatest Hits is a collection of 20 songs from Lynn’s career. I have listened to it all the way through a handful of times, but I still probably couldn’t name any of the songs on it that I didn’t already know before purchasing the album. The songs that I knew (and liked) are joined by a few that I wasn’t familiar with, but for the most part the rest of the songs sound too much alike for me. After hearing her all-time greatest hits, I resigned to the fact that for me Loretta Lynn is a fine artist with a very interesting life and point of view that saturates her songs with passion and honesty and it makes her a likable enough musician for me to enjoy from time to time, but not too often. (Also, I fondly remember her Crisco commercials from when I was a child but that’s neither here nor there.) Her album from this year, Van Lear Rose, changes everything.

This, the second album I’ve reviewed here, is a lot like the first one. Both Loretta Lynn and William Shatner are people that I normally wouldn’t pay much attention to if it weren’t for the involvement of some of my favorite musicians with their new albums. William Shatner had Ben Folds while Loretta Lynn has Jack White of The White Stripes. Both Folds and White found a way to both bring out the best in their collaborators and to infuse just enough of their own sound to make their mark undeniable. Loretta Lynn wrote all the songs on Van Lear Rose and nearly every one of them sounds as classic as "You Ain’t Woman Enough," "Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’," or "Coal Miner’s Daughter." The difference though is that there is no standard Nashville conveyer belt sound in the background. The music that backs up Mrs. Lynn’s words sounds as if it is made my musicians that love what they are doing and are entirely confident that what they are doing is the very best thing for Ms Lynn with every note.

What I said about all the songs sounding like classics is not hyperbole. I can’t tell where Loretta Lynn’s voice has aged one bit. I challenge anyone out there who knows someone who is familiar with Loretta Lynn, yet hasn’t heard of her new album to play the song "Trouble on the Line" for them and then ask if they can take a stab at what year it was recorded. I’d bet money that their guess would fall somewhere in the middle of Lynn’s most successful years. Ask someone when they thought the song "High on a Mountain Top" or "This Old House" was written and you’d probably get a guess of sometime around they year of Lynn’s birth. This is not to say that Jack White has not added some more contemporary touches. That’s what makes this album so great. There’s a balance between country classicism and modern blues rock. It will not let you down from start to finish. It’s well paced and it sounds like it was made with a distinct vision by people who love making music. It’s a perfect example of why I’m an album guy.