From the S&S archives: Loretta Lynn: 'You're lookin' at country'

"IF YOU'RE LOOKIN' at me, you're lookin' at country," sang Loretta Lynn Thursday night at Giebelstadt, the first of 20 stops in 17 days on her DOD/USO tour.

When asked how she defined country, she replied (in a voice that was obviously country) with a question: "You know how I wrote that song? I come home one day from Nashville and stopped just off the road by our farm. As I looked out over the field, I thought, `That's lookin' at country.' That sounded like a good song but I knew that without it bein' a love song it would never sell, so I put me in it."

She puts herself into all her music.

"My songs reflect me. I could never sing som'thin' I don't believe in. All my songs are about life," she said after the concert. The 48-year-old singer was pushed into the business by her husband, O.V. "Mooney" Lynn.

Mooney said, "I'd come home after working two or three jobs trying to feed my family and Loretta would show me songs she'd written. Then she'd sing and play 'em for me. I always believed she had talent. I'd bought her a $17 guitar for a wedding gift.

"She sounded so good, I went out and got a band to back her up. She started working at this little club near the Canadian border Saturday and Sunday nights. Then we added Friday night and before we knew it, she was working six nights a week," said her husband of 34 years.

"I'd go with her when I could but we had several kids. If I couldn't go, her brother would haul her around."

"Traveling without Mooney and the kids was probably the hardest thing I ever done. But I couldn't let him (Mooney) down," said Lynn.

Although Lynn wasn't one of the first women to sing country, she was one of the first to sing her style of music, according to Lynn.

"When I was singing I'm a Honky Tonk Girl, You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man) or Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With A-Lovin' on Your Mind) other women singers were afraid they'd be booed off the stage."

But instead of boos, Lynn has received many accolades including being named Top Female Vocalist by Billboard in 1964 and has received more honors from the Country Music Association than any other recording artist. In 1972 she was the first woman to be named Entertainer of the Year and the first woman in country music to earn a gold record.

More than 2,200 fans nearly doubled the small airfield's population as people travel from throughout the Wuerzburg area for Lynn's show. The cold helicopter repair hangar of E Co., 3rd Aviation Bn Combat, opened its doors to host this superstar called the Queen of Country.

As Lynn swept onto the portable stage decked out in a beautiful, floor-length, sparkling red dress with black zig-zags, she unleashed a lightning storm of flashes. It seemed that every other person had a camera and wanted a picture.

As Lynn sang, the crowd moved closer to her. Between her songs, she wove a tale that told us about each song.

"We come to do what y'all want," she said from the stage. "When we left, folks ask `Who you goin' to see?' who else, I said, but y'all."

The 5-foot-2 brunette included the crowd in a singalong with You Can't Be a Beacon. (If Your Light Don't Shine). She also cut up with the Coal Miners — Dennis Digby-bass, Derwood Edwards-harmonicas, Monty Parkey-keyboards, Bobby Hemker-steele guitar, Zeke Dawson-drums, Dave Thornhill-lead guitar and band leader.

Before Lynn introduced her daughter, Cissy, she. explained why Cissy is called Cissy. "We called her Cissy for four years before we got around to naming her but decided to keep calling her Cissy."

While Lynn went to change clothes, Cissy sang a couple of numbers before the band played Tennessee's theme song — Rocky Top.

For her second set, Lynn sang Dear Uncle Sam, a song she gets requests for wherever she goes. "I wrote this for you all," she said. As she finished and had to wipe away a few stray tears, so did many others.

Her medley of Patsy Cline numbers included I Fall to Pieces, After Midnight and I've Got Your Picture, which is Lynn's favorite Cline song. It was so quiet during this number, that besides Lynn, the only noise was the heaters blowing.

"I brought a special song with me that you can sing too," said Lynn as she launched into Bobby Bare's I Wanna Go Home. When she asked, "Don't you feel better now?," the crowd responded with a resounding "Yea!"

With the beginning notes of Coal Miner's Daughter, the crowd drowned out Lynn with screams and shouts. As the audience gave her a well-deserved standing ovation, she began God Bless America Again with Parkey singing bass.

There were no encores because Lynn remembers her earlier years when she would be third, fourth or last on a program. The others would do encores which often meant that Lynn wouldn't get to go on or would only have time for a few songs. She vowed that she wouldn't do encores but would rather leave her fans wanting more. And Lynn always has an autograph session. She spent more than two hours this night signing autographs which she considers just as important.

As she left, she left a message for her fans, "I'm a comin' back."

Loretta Lynn and the Coal Miners will be at Neu Ulm Wiley Barracks Gym Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Stuttgart/Boeblingen Panzer Casern Gym Thursday, 7 p.m.; Neckarsulm/Heilbronn Artillery Casern Gym Friday, 8 p.m.; Baumholder Smith Barracks movie theater Saturday, 7 p.m. Babenhausen Recreation Center for a handshake tour Sunday at 2 p.m. with a performance at Darmstadt's Cambrai-Fritsch Casern Rainbow NCO Club at 7 p.m.; Rhein-Main Gym Nov. 28, 7 p.m. and the Sinai Dec. 1 and 2.