With a rocker’s help, Loretta Lynn has garnered the most Grammy nominations of her career.
The 69-year-old country legend received five Grammy nominations for “Van Lear Rose,” which was produced by the White Stripes’ Jack White. The album was well-received by critics but yielded scant attention from country radio.
“I was shocked when they nominated me for five different things,” Lynn said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“It’s kind of like my first one,” Lynn said of the album. “It’s back to real country.”
Lynn, whose hits range from “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” to “Out of My Head And Back in My Bed,” only has one Grammy. She won in 1971 for her duet “After the Fire is Gone” with the late Conway Twitty.
Her Tuesday nominations — the most of any country artist — include best female country vocal performance for “Miss Being Mrs.,” a song about Mooney Lynn, her husband of 48 years who died in 1996; and best country collaboration with vocals for “Portland, Oregon,” a duet with White.
Both tunes also are nominated for best country song. Her fifth nod is for country album of the year for “Van Lear Rose,” a raw, sometimes dark collection that has White’s fingerprints all over it. He augments the traditional country instrumentation and twangy vocals with heavy drums and bursts of grungy electric guitar.
Lynn said she was happy for White that her album fared so well with Grammy voters.
“I’m glad it done like it done because that kid worked so hard,” she said of White.
She’s particularly pleased about “Portland, Oregon,” which recounts a night of sloe gin fizzes and a romantic fling.
“It’s my favorite,” she said. “I was in Portland, Oregon, when I wrote it. I got to thinking that everybody writes about Texas — what’s wrong with Portland, Oregon?”