Loretta Lynn has not released an album of new material since “Van Lear Rose,” the 2004 record produced by Jack White, which won the country music album of the year Grammy. But it turns out that the 82-year old singer has been recording new material with her daughter, Patsy L. Russell, and John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash’s son, for an expansive project that will include newly composed songs, and will also revisit the Appalachian folk songs and gospel tunes that Ms. Lynn heard during her childhood.
Sony Legacy announced on Thursday that it had signed Ms. Lynn to a new multi-album contract that would include the release of this material. A Sony spokesman said that he could not offer further clarification about the number of albums planned, because the arrangement may include options and other variables. But Ms. Lynn offered some insight into her project in a recent interview with Nashville Scene.
“I’ve been busy recording,” she told the publication. “I cut 90-some songs. I did all my biggest ones over again, and I cut some old-timey story songs like Mommy taught me when I was in Kentucky. Like this guy that got mad at his girlfriend because she got in a bad way with him — you know, pregnant. Well, he killed her and threw her in the bottom of the Ohio River. Tied a railroad steel around her neck! When somebody would do something like that, people would write about it.”