Butcher Holler: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn

Butcher Holler (Artist), Eilen Jewell (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 27, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Signature Sounds
• ASIN: B003O5MORA
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,841 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool tribute to Loretta Lynn, July 27, 2010

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Butcher Holler: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn (Audio CD)

On last year's Sea of Tears, Eilen Jewell stepped up from folk and country sounds to electric twang. She dropped the fiddle and harmonica of her earlier releases and sang solo with a rockabilly-styled trio of guitar, bass and drums. That same trio format, with the thoroughly stellar Jerry Miller on guitar and pedal steel, is employed for this terrific salute to Loretta Lynn. The band plays blue and lightly rocking across a dozen covers, melding Jewell's jazz-tipped vocals with twang-heavy guitars and tempos that turn the ballads into sorrowful two-steppers and the rest into perfectly restrained rockers. You can hear Lynn in every track, but what you won't hear is Jewell copying the subject of her tribute.

Jewell isn't as feisty a singer as Lynn, which keeps "Fist City" and "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" from delivering the originals' heat. To be fair, Lynn wrote and sang these songs when such outspokenness, at least from a female country singer, delivered a shock and element of liberation that's not available to a contemporary vocalist. Jewell's cool approach works perfectly on the sly "You Wanna Give Me a Lift" as she brushes off an overly amorous suitor with the lyric "I'm a little bit warm, but that don't mean I'm on fire." For "Don't Come Home A- Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," Jewell offers a promise of forgiveness in place of a half-cocked frying pan, and it works very nicely.

Lynn's originals are filtered through Jewell's influences, so while these new recordings pay homage to the hits, they're distinct interpretations influenced by the blue emotions of Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Connie Francis, and the torchy styles of Big Sandy and Julie London. Jewell sings most everything solo, doubling herself on the superbly forlorn "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" and leaving Miller's guitar to provide the second voice elsewhere. Miller's steel playing on "A Man I Hardly Know" is superb, and the bouncy "You're Looking at Country" closes the album on a convincing note: Jewell's a bit jazz, a bit blues, a bit rockabilly and a whole lot country. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Labor of Love, August 31, 2010

By 

Steve Ford (Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Butcher Holler: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn (Audio CD)

Eilen Jewell and her band are re-cast here as Butcher Holler, letting you know this is a side project and not Jewell's "next album". While Butcher Holler is not a huge leap forward, it's no misstep. Like the Sacred Shakers gospel album (on which Jewell played a smaller role), this tribute to Loretta Lynn is a worthy addition to Jewell's varied and impressive catalog. It's clearly a labor of love, and executed with nary a blemish. While the cover art of Butcher Holler (named for Lynn's birthplace) mimics Loretta Lynn - Greatest Hits, this set concentrates on original songs rather than chart toppers. As with the brilliant Sea of Tears - my favourite album of 2009 - it's Eilen's singing that keeps your attention, with major support from the wonderful Jerry Miller on guitar. My only criticism - and it's a minor one - is the sequencing of tracks. Jewell's treatment of Fist City, an exemplar of Lynn's feistiness but not her best song, doesn't quite have the punch to open the set. ("I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" or "You're Lookin' at Country" were the obvious choices.) Jewell and band's economical, timeless retro sound is a perfect way to introduce the music of Loretta Lynn to a new audience, and to give it a fresh appeal to older fans.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loretta Lynn would love this disc., September 21, 2010

By 

David L. Viens (Wood Dale, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Butcher Holler: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn (Audio CD)

Eilen Jewell channels Loretta Lynn on this disc. Her voice is perfect for this material and the backup band couldn't be more right. Every song on this disc is a tribute to Loretta Lynn without trying to be a copy of what she did. Eilen Jewell puts just enough of her own personality into the songs to make them hers without losing what made them great to begin with. This is the kind of music country radio should be playing today.