Alan Jackson, Lee Ann Womack and Loretta Lynn. It does not get any better than that.
Last night, Carly Pearce, the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry, hosted the Academy of Country Music Honors award ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
She first took the stage to sing her new song, “Dear Miss Loretta”, before the legend herself, Loretta Lynn, was honored with one of the night’s three Poet Awards.
Carly, who has clearly been inspired by Loretta’s music, reiterated how much it means to her before introducing Alan Jackson and Lee Ann Womack to sing “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man”:
“Her music has not only left an indelible mark on my own songwriting, but I know it has for all female country music songwriters.
She showed me how to be real, and raw, and unapologetically direct. And has truly paved the way for women like me in country music.”
Of course, the duet was originally made famous by Loretta and Conway Twitty back in 1973 as title track from their album of the same name. Written by Becki Bluefield and Jim Owen, it was also Loretta and Conway’s third #1 on the country charts as a duo.
Although Loretta couldn’t be there in person to accept the award, she sent in a sweet video message to thank the ACM’s:
“Hello everybody, this is Loretta Lynn. Thank you ACM for giving me the poet’s award. I love you and that’s the greatest award I could get.”
Alan and Lee Ann also returned later in the show to sing a surprise song for Rac Clark (recipient of the Mae Boren Acton service award), singing Alan’s duet with George Strait, “Murder On Music Row”.
It was honestly a tad bit ironic to watch them perform that track during an award show that was created for the industry people in Nashville, but still, I’ll never complain about watching those two on stage together.
Check out their awesome rendition of Loretta and Conway’s duet here, and skip to around the 1:14 mark to see them sing some George Strait:
