88.1 KDHX Saint Louis

The first hour today is Back Country as usual, with birthdays, new music and folks playing out. In hour 2 we'll play some of the music of the incomparable Loretta Lynn.

One of the thousands of tracks with Pete Drake on pedal steel, in this case the non-talking kind.

From their 1984 release on Flying Fish "Waltz of the Wind," the original recording of Jay Unger's composition that would become the theme song for Ken Burns' Civil War series was done by this group: triple fiddles from Jay, Matt Glaser and Evan Stover, bass from Molly Mason and guitar from birthday boy Russ Barenberg.

Folk singer Mary McCaslin died earlier this week at the age of 75. She favored songs of the West, old and new, and she influenced those who came later such as Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin-Carpenter. This composition of hers made it onto Bromberg's studio/live 2 LP release.

Gene Watson celebrates his 79th birthday on Tuesday and he recorded this Johnny Russell song for MCA in 1983.

By far the biggest hit that Raymond "Mundo" Earwood wrote, recorded more recently by The Time Jumpers, from whom we'll hear later. This is an album of Willie duets with folks from George Jones and Merle Haggard to Leon Russell and Neil Young.

From late in her career, an album of songs she co-wrote and performed with Guy Clark's longtime sideman, Verlon Thompson. Melba celebrates her 84th birthday on Friday.

It's been too long since I've played Ags Connolly and I have no one but myself to blame for that. A nice country shuffle with a seemingly contradictory message.

Hard to believe this album came out almost a decade ago. A crime of passion or a crime of fashion?

Sending this one out to John Idoux, longtime listener, whose support for KDHX extends back to the days of our predecessor, KDNA. Essentially the title track to Gram's last album in 1974, with Emmylou's soaring vocal accompaniment.

Sunny Sweeney's new album will be given serious consideration for my year-end best list. She wrote or co-wrote almost all of the songs for it.

An impressive debut release of all-original songs for this young man.

A couple of songs from Dale and his great band, this one for his 60th birthday yesterday. This was the first of his three trucking albums.

"Play Loretta...and Conway, some Haggard and George Jones." All gone now, but we'll get to playing some Loretta here directly.

As a non-commercial station who streams live and in an archived version, we are limited by law regarding how much music we can play by one artist. I did manage to cobble this together and stay within the boundaries. It all began here in 1960 when a pressing of 5000 .45s on the tiny Zero label in Vancouver, Canada were sent to radio stations across the U.S., followed up by a personal visit from Loretta. Recorded in L.A. with Speedy West, Harold Hensley and Roy Lanham among the musicians.

One of five #1 duets these two recorded together, this one from 1974. In addition, they placed seven more in the Top Ten between 1976 and 1981. A straight-up country tearjerker.

E.T. and Loretta released an album of duets in 1965 for Decca Records that included this one.

From 1965, this song was written by Betty Sue Perry, but Loretta wrote plenty of songs about infidelity, some based on her husband's own activities in that regard.

The first of the five #1 recordings by this duet was this one from 1971, and it won a Grammy.

This short-lived local group included this Loretta composition on their one and only album. Life sometimes gets in the way of good music. The band included Hannah Arnson, Kelly Wells and Anne and Colleen Williamson.

A few years after Loretta left behind her 40-year relationship with Decca/MCA and her 40 albums, Jack White of the White Stripes produced this album of Loretta's music. She was 72 and he was 28. The title track is a reference to the Van Lear coal mines near Butcher Holler, where her daddy was employed.

Another one from that 1965 Decca album, written by Bill Anderson.

One of several selections on the show from this tribute album. Loretta's 1971 recording made it to #5.

From her final studio release. When Loretta's original 1966 release went to #1 it marked the first time a female country songwriter did that.

Greg Leisz on the pedal steel on this song. Many of her recordings featured International Steel Guitar Hall of Famer Hal Rugg on steel.

Just how much fun these two had recording this 1978 release comes through clearly.

This was a Top Ten hit for Loretta in 1967 and Reba is accompanied by The Time Jumpers on this version. Reba will be at the Enterprise Center two weeks from tonight for a show with Terri Clark.

A Dallas Frazier song.

Loretta worked with the Wilburn Brothers early in her Nashville career, and Teddy Wilburn co-wrote this one, which she recorded in 1969 with Ernest Tubb. This is a terrific cover version. "You're gonna miss my Hefty bags."

I thought this would be an appropriate song with which to close today's show. It made it onto the Billboard singles chart, which gave Loretta the distinction of being the first country female artist to chart a song in six different decades.