0417. Loretta Lynn
Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)

In the typical honky-tonk narrative of no good cheatin' lyin' husbands (and wives), Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind) sets the tone right from the album title: this isn't music about or for well-adjusted people (but the misery's delivered with a smile, or else!).

Loretta Lynn's seventh (and partly autobiographical) studio release became her break as a songwriter (and a bit of a controversial at that, touching on ideas of women's lib in a very conservative genre) and also paved the way for her to win a Country Music Award for best female vocalist. A pretty different path from the the average coal miner's daughter, married at 13.

Just to confirm any and all stereotypes about country folk, Loretta's brother recorded an answer-song to the title track, called I Come Home A'Drinkin' (To a Worn Out Wife Like You). And that's just creepy.