Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn were both successful solo artists in their own right but in 1971, they began releasing records together to great success. In total they released ten albums together, 7 compilations, 13 singles and celebrated five number ones with each other. Their first album to top the albums chart was ‘Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man’ which was their third album together, released in 1973. By this point, Loretta had had a smash hit with ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ three years prior and had had seven number ones as a solo artist when ‘Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man’ first came out. Conway, meanwhile, had 11 number one’s to his name and together they had already made their mark with two chart topping singles. The first of those, ‘After The Fire Is Gone’ was a GRAMMY award winning song as well.
The album opens with another chart topper, the title track, written by Becki Bluefield and Jim Owen. The beautiful love song with a cajun sound, superbly produced by legendary producer Owen Bradley, was a change of pace for the duo but their close harmonies maintained their signature sound. It was the only track on the album to be released as a single but reviewers at the time noted the importance of songs such as ‘For Heaven’s Sake’ written by Lorene Allen, Frankie Fuller and Maggie Vaughn which sees emotion from both Twitty and Lynn channelled into every word, giving the songs message much more weight and meaning. ‘As Good as a Lonely Girl Can Be’ was another standout track on the record, the pair’s powerful, swooning vocals as flawless as ever, intertwining well throughout. Owen Bradley did a fine job of getting the best out of them vocally and framing this focal point with a simple yet effective, traditional country production.
For four consecutive years between 1972 and 75, Twitty and Lynn were named the “Vocal Duo of the Year” by the CMA. The Academy of Country Music named them the “Best Vocal Duo” in 1971, 1974, 1975 and 1976. The American Music awards selected them as the “Favorite Country Duo” in 1975, 1976 and 1977 and the fan-voted Music City News readers voted them the No. 1 duo every year between 1971 and 1981, inclusive. Their impact on the genre as solo artists is undeniable but as duet partners they took the world by storm too!
