Loretta Lynn and the late Patsy Cline are legends--country icons and sisters of the heart. For the first time ever Loretta tells their story: a celebration of their music and their relationship up until Patsy's tragic and untimely death.
The heart leaps at the chance to shift attention from epidemics, recession and state-sponsored snitching back to more intimate and familiar dissolutions, including serial adultery, virtuoso drunkenness and unscheduled tooth removal via sucker punch. Country-music legend Loretta Lynn’s Me and Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust is rich in those traditional themes. It’s also a quick and illuminating read ... Ms. Lynn, now 88, offers a heartfelt and often rollicking remembrance of her friendship with the late Patsy Cline, perhaps the greatest country singer ever... Ms. Lynn tells her story without literary flourish, sometimes including grammatical improvisations that will make pedantic blood boil. I’ve wrote a lot of songs,” she reports early on. Still, daughter and singer-songwriter Patsy Lynn Russell has knocked the book into a breezy memoir. What it lacks in pretension it makes up for in brevity. Several chapters are only a few pages, but like a tight country lyric their success doesn’t depend on syllabic excess ... A diva’s work is never done. Women make up only 16% of country artists and 12% of country songwriters, Ms. Lynn reports, 'which 'just ain’t right.' Besides encouraging young artists, she offers a short list of essential Cline songs to keep her friend’s music alive.
Loretta gives readers an interesting window into what it was like to be a woman in the country music world during the '50s and '60s. She also offers an intriguing glimpse into her personal life, as she talks about growing up poor, marrying when she was a teenager, and living with a husband who cheated on her. She writes with a true down-home country style that shows no pretense, making it feel like she is sitting in your living room sharing her stories with you ... If you’re a country music fan, do yourself a favor and read You’ll be glad you did.
With an outstanding Foreword by Dolly Parton, Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust delivers enjoyable short chapters jumping in and out of stories from Loretta Lynn’s heart, written in Loretta’s own, unedited, authentic, rural mountain voice. Patsy Cline helped Lynn get started in Nashville’s music scene. She even groomed Lynn, teaching the then-country bumpkin how to dress for the stage. A lovely, quick read for classic country music fans.
