Loretta Lynn Doubles Up

Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of opry.com

Jan. 12, 2009 — The last time Loretta Lynn recorded an album, she enlisted rock musician Jack White to produce it. The resulting project, Van Lear Rose, won the Grammy for Best Country Album.

Van Lear is five years old in April, and Loretta is just now following up with not one, but two CDs. This time, she’s teamed up with producer John Carter Cash, who’s won a Grammy award of his own as the producer of June Carter Cash’s Wildwood Flower, which claimed Best Traditional Folk Album in 2004.

One of the two albums is, like Van Lear, an outpouring of brand new material.

"[A friend] told me: 'Loretta, don't quit writing, because if you do, no one in Nashville is writing songs,'" Loretta told Billboard. "I write about what's happening today and how I feel."

But she’s also digging into the past with the other album. Loretta is in the process of re-recording her former chart-topping singles.

"I want to make sure that [the fans] get all the old No. 1 hits over the years," she said. "They holler for them [at concerts]."

Loretta collected 16 No. 1 hits in Billboard during her career — 11 as a solo artist and five as a duet partner with Conway Twitty. Among the solo releases to reach the summit: "One’s On The Way," "Coal Miner’s Daughter," "Fist City" and "Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)."

Loretta appears on GAC’s Opry Live with Jessica Simpson, Patty Loveless and Crystal Shawanda on Tuesday. The encore edition airs at 9 p.m. ET and again at 1 a.m. ET.