The influence of Loretta Lynn, who died on October 4 at 90, has become wildly apparent over the past decade and change. Carly Pearce sang a song called “Dear Miss Loretta†on her 2021 album 29; Margo Price named her 2016 album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter as an homage to Lynn’s Coal Miner’s Daughter; and over a dozen artists, including Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Sheryl Crow, Reba McEntire, Paramore, Martina McBride, and Lucinda Williams, honored Lynn with covers and duets on the 2010 album Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn and the 2021 album Still Woman Enough.
Those artists are just some of the many paying tribute to Lynn’s six decades of truth-telling lyrics and a career that broke barriers for women in country music. Homages also came from Dolly Parton, Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, Barbara Mandrell, Ashley McBryde, Carole King, Stella Parton, and Valerie June. (And women aren’t the only ones to recognize Lynn’s genius: the Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, Parker McCollum, and Blake Shelton also honored her.) “I sure appreciate her paving the rough and rocky road for all us girl singers,†McEntire wrote on Instagram. “It’s safe to say I wouldn’t even be making country music today if it weren’t for Loretta Lynn,†tweeted Price. “We’ve been like sisters all the years we’ve been in Nashville and she was a wonderful human being, wonderful talent, had millions of fans, and I’m one of them,†wrote Dolly Parton, who collaborated with Lynn and Tammy Wynette on the 1993 album Honky Tonk Angels. Find more tributes to Loretta Lynn below.