Born and raised in Kentucky as the daughter of miner Ted Webb, Loretta Lynn taught herself how to play guitar as a teenager. She knew enough to begin carving out her identity as a singer, later giving way to establishing a strong legacy. But taking a look at Loretta's extended family tree, it seems that her musical calling was inevitable—and has spanned generations ever since.
Loretta was the second oldest of eight children. While neither of their parents pursued music as a career, the Webb brothers had a talent for melody. One of Loretta's first musical endeavors included performing with her brother, Jay Lee Webb, as Loretta and the Trailblazers. Jay Lee was similarly self-taught, having picked up their father's guitar after leaving school at 15.
Before their sister, Peggy Sue Webb, was a top performer in her own right, she sometimes wrote music with Loretta. Peggy Sue is credited as a songwriter on “Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind),” which became Loretta's first Number One country hit in the late 60s. Their collaboration led directly to an early hit for Jay Lee, whose follow-up song “I Come Home A-Drinkin' (To a Worn Out Wife Like You)” reached the country charts.
Between 1969 and 1981, Peggy Sue released five studio albums and nearly a dozen singles of her own. And in the years that followed, although largely out of the limelight, she often performed as a backing singer for Crystal Gayle, the youngest of the Webb sisters. Crystal Gayle's debut single “I've Cried (The Blue Right Out of My Eyes)” arrived in 1970 when she was managed at Decca Records by Loretta's husband Oliver Lynn. Loretta had written the song that brought her sister into the top 40 of the country music charts.
Loretta has combined her success as a performer and songwriter with motherhood as well. She and Oliver were the parents of six children. She also passed on her musical skills to them. Her oldest daughter, Betty Sue, explored songwriting, having written Loretta's 1964 single “Wine, Women and Song” and her 1965 single “The Home You're Tearin' Down.”
Loretta's youngest children, twin daughters Peggy Jean and Patsy Eileen, formed the country duo Lynns in 1997. They released one album together, The Lynnswhich included the charting singles “Nights Like These” and “Woman to Woman”.
Clara Marie Lynn, Loretta's second oldest daughter, was not a big hit on the country charts, but she found an audience on the street. During her career, the performer known as Cissie joined George Jones, Mel McDaniel and Conway Twitty on tour. When he was recording, it was for emotional tributes like 2011 The Miner's Daughter's Daughter which featured covers of Loretta's hit singles and saw her mother step into the role of producer.
Coincidentally, Twitty was Loretta's longtime song partner with a similar musical family. His grandson Michael “Tre” Twitty now stars with Loretta's granddaughter Tayla Lynn — Ernest Lynn's daughter — as Twitty & Lynn. The tour is not meant to impersonate their grandparents, but to honor them and their music.
“Fans have told Tayla and I that when they see us on stage singing and talking and just looking at each other, they think, 'Wow, there must be something genetic in these two families,'” Twitty tells a statement in their official. Website. “It validates the concert experience for them. We tell the story of our grandparents through our story.”
Another of Loretta's granddaughters, Pasty Eileen's daughter Emmy Russell, has now embraced her family legacy. The 24-year-old recently auditioned for American Idolperforming an original ballad titled “Skinny”.
“I don't sing that much anymore, but growing up I sang in the street – my grandma is a country singer, so I grew up singing,” Russell told the judging panel, adding: “She's one of the greatest country singers of all time, but for me it's just my grandma and growing up on the bus and it was all very normal for me.”
A country icon, Loretta left her mark on generations of musicians both inside and outside of her family tree. Throughout her career, the singer has been cited as an inspiration by fellow country artists such as Dolly Parton and Margo Price, but also by artists covering their genre such as Jack White and Elvis Costello.
“We were like sisters all the years we were in Nashville,” Parton said in a statement when Loretta died at age 90 in October 2022. “She was a wonderful person, a wonderful talent, she had millions of fans and I'm one of them.” .
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/loretta-lynn-family-granddaughter-american-idol-1234975740/