Maps of Music

Honky Tonk Angels (1993)

Where the lyrics of Honky Tonk Angels take you, and where it was really made.

Three of the most famous women in country music made this album, yet its only single peaked at No. 68 on the Hot Country chart.

Key places

Nightingale Recording Studio, Nashville (1993)

Recording site Nashville — Discogs notes list Nightingale Recording Studio among the studios where this album was recorded. The map point is set at the city centre of Nashville, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Honky Tonk Angels: collaborative studio album by Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette
• Released 2 November 1993 by Columbia Records
• Certified Gold by the RIAA on 5 January 1994 for sales of 500,000 copies
• Mix of country standards and original songs by Lynn and Wynette
• Liner notes written by Ralph Emery

Background

• Long-rumored project among the three country singers for over a decade
• Mostly Parton's idea to bring together the women who made their breakthroughs in the 1960s
• These women changed the texture of country music by weaving modern life into traditional patterns and enlarged the audience for country
• Once Parton persuaded the others, she asked Steve Buckingham to co-produce with her

Recording

• Recorded at Nightingale Recording Studio, Masterfonics and The Doghouse
• Mixed at The Doghouse
• Mastered and edited at Georgetown Masters
• Lovesick Blues features a vintage Patsy Cline recording made on 27 January 1960, produced by Owen Bradley

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1932, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, the oldest daughter in a coal miner's family.
• Married Oliver Vanetta "Doolittle" Lynn in 1948 at age 15; the marriage lasted almost 50 years until his death in 1996.
• Began singing in local clubs in the late 1950s and formed her own band, the Trailblazers.

Career

• Signed with Zero Records in 1960; her first release was "Whispering Sea" and "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl".
• Joined Decca Records through the Wilburn Brothers; joined the Grand Ole Opry on September 25, 1962.
• Scored a string of hits from the 1960s, including "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" and "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin'".
• Wrote songs on women's issues such as birth control ("The Pill") and double standards ("Rated 'X'"), many inspired by her own marriage.
• Recorded five No. 1 duets with Conway Twitty between 1971 and 1975.
• Her 1976 autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter became a bestseller and inspired the 1980 Oscar-winning film starring Sissy Spacek.
• Named Artist of the Decade for the 1970s by the Academy of Country Music, the only woman to win this honor.
• Released Van Lear Rose (2004), produced by Jack White, which won the Grammy for Best Country Album.
• Had a stroke in 2017 and broke her hip in 2018, which ended her touring after 57 years.
• Died on October 4, 2022, at age 90, at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Billboard called it a spirited collaboration that brings together three country music cornerstones, with a pinch of Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells
• Billboard pointed to a few musically inspired moments, notably Parton's Sittin' on the Front Porch Swing and Wynette's That's the Way It Could Have Been
• Billboard judged that, for the most part, the album was more a nostalgic look back than a celebration of present-day glories
• AllMusic's Kelly McCartney wrote that it is a fun listen for fans of traditional country or great singers, because it nicely captures three of the best voices around

Records

• US Billboard Top Country Albums: No. 6
• US Billboard 200: No. 42
• Canada RPM Country Albums: No. 6; RPM Albums: No. 44
• RIAA Gold, 5 January 1994, for sales of 500,000 copies
• Single Silver Threads and Golden Needles, released November 1993, peaked at No. 68 on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart
• Album nominated for Album of the Year at the 1994 TNN Music City News Country Awards
• Single nominated for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards, for Vocal Event of the Year at the 28th Annual Country Music Association Awards, and for Vocal Collaboration of the Year at the TNN awards

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The opening track It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels features a guest vocal from Kitty Wells, the song's originator and the original country queen.
• Lovesick Blues uses a vintage recording of Patsy Cline, made on 27 January 1960 and produced by Owen Bradley, with the trio singing along.
• I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven is Tex Ritter's 1962 classic, with new spoken dialogue written by Parton.
• Put It Off Until Tomorrow, a 1966 Bill Phillips hit, was Parton's first success as a songwriter.
• The album's liner notes were written by Ralph Emery.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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