Loretta Lynn has announced that one’s on the way — that is, that she’ll be reprising classic songs like “One’s on the Way,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and “Honky Tonk Girl” on a forthcoming album titled “Still Woman Enough.” Although it’s not strictly an album of either remakes or duets, the March 19 release will include Carrie Underwood, Margo Price, Tanya Tucker and Reba McEntire as special guests.
“Still Woman Enough” may sound familiar as a title, not just because it refers to one of her signature songs, “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” but because it shares a title with her second memoir, which was published in 2002. The title track that leads off the album is a new composition, though, co-written with Lynn’s daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell, and performed as a trio with Underwood and McEntire.
The two other duets on the album revisit classic Lynn territory — “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” the closer, is a duet with Tucker, and a revisitation of 1971’s Shel Silverstein-penned humorous ode to fertility, “One’s on the Way,” pairs her with Price.
“I am just so thankful to have some of my friends join me on my new album. We girl singers gotta stick together,” Lynn said in a statement announcing the project. “It’s amazing how much has happened in the fifty years since ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ first came out and I’m extremely grateful to be given a part to play in the history of American music.”
Lynn also returns to her catalog for a spoken-word recitation of “Coal Miner’s Daughter” — a music video for the track was released Monday morning (watch it below)— and a fresh rendering of her 1960 breakout single, “Honky Tonk Girl.”
Other tracks include her version of the Carter Family’s “Keep on the Sunny Side” — apropos, given that John Carter Cash, the son of June Carter and Johnny Cash, is the album’s co-producer, along with Russell — along with Stephen Foster’s “Old Kentucky Home,” Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light” and the gospel standard “I Don’t Feel at Home Anymore.” New recordings of two lesser-known Lynn catalog compositions, “My Love” (from 1968) and “I Wanna Be Free” (1971), round out the project.
A 50th anniversary vinyl edition of the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” album will be released Feb. 12 in conjunction with the new project.
Although keeping strict track of the official discography has been difficult, “Still Woman Enough” is being billed as Lynn’s 50th studio album, not counting duets projects with Conway Twitty. It’s her fourth for Sony Legacy, making good on a career renaissance that picked up steam with “Van Lear Rose,” her 2004 Jack White-produced album.
Loretta Lynn “Still Woman Enough” cover
Sony Legacy
Track list, with vocal partners and songwriters:
1. Still Woman Enough (featuring Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood) (written by Loretta Lynn and Patsy Lynn Russell)
2. Keep On The Sunny Side (A.P. Carter)
3. Honky Tonk Girl (Loretta Lynn)
4. I Don’t Feel At Home Any More (Traditional, arrangement by Loretta Lynn)
5. Old Kentucky Home (Stephen Foster and Loretta Lynn)
6. Coal Miner’s Daughter Recitation (Loretta Lynn)
7. One’s On The Way (featuring Margo Price (Shel Silverstein)
8. I Wanna Be Free (Loretta Lynn)
9. Where No One Stands Alone (Lister Mosie)
10. I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight (T.B. Ransom)
11. I Saw The Light (Hank Williams)
12. My Love (Loretta Lynn)
13. You Ain’t Woman Enough (featuring Tanya Tucker) (Loretta Lynn)