Wynonna, Kenny: Spotlight's on Them

February 27, 2007
Premiere Radio

Target stores nationwide are unveiling a group of CD compilations, The Spotlight Music Series, today. Wynonna is featured on an Influences disc, which showcases her heroes and "she-roes," who helped shape her music. Her selections include Loretta Lynn ("Coal Miner's Daughter"), Alabama ("Dixieland Delight"), Tammy Wynette ("No Charge"), Dolly Parton ("Jolene"), Kris Kristofferson ("Me and Bobby McGee"), Ray Price ("For the Good Times"), Merle Haggard ("Workin' Man's Blues") and Emmylou Harris ("Blue Kentucky Girl").

Kenny Chesney's "Keg in the Closet," Brad Paisley's "Little Moments" and Miranda Lambert's "Me and Charlie Talking" are among the tunes included on the Nashville Now C-D. Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson are featured on the New Music From an Old Friend C-D. --Donna Hughes

Audio: Wynonna says it was difficult to narrow down her choices for the new Target series, Influences C-D. OC: ...Merle Haggard. :27 [phone quality]

"The songs I picked were many, and they had to narrow them down, because I have such musical A-D-D that it was very hard [to pick]. The ones that were cleared, they said pick 20 or so, and then we'll narrow it down. It was very hard for me, because I have such a history and her-story with country music, the blues, R-&-B, gospel, rock and roll. I was raised on bluegrass, yet my grandfather taught me to dance to the big band-swing sound. And then I go to California and I discover Bonnie Raitt, and then I get into Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, and then we move to Nashville, and I get into George Jones and Merle Haggard."

Audio: Wynonna talks about Loretta Lynn's "Coal Miner's Daughter." OC: ...who it is. :37 [phone quality]

"Loretta Lynn's 'Coal Miner's Daughter,' which to this day [is my] top three movie favorites of all time. And that movie, that song, takes me to a place that is not of this earth. And it's such a deep heritage, family, Kentucky, where I come from, D-N-A kind of song that I stop what I'm doing and I go to that place where I realize, omigosh, we are so alike. In country music, it doesn't get any more country or more stylistic than Loretta Lynn. I mean you hear that voice [and] within three seconds, you know who it is."

Audio: Wynonna recalls being on tour with Alabama, who she describes as the country version of the Rolling Stones. OC: ...stars to me. :32 [phone quality]

"I remember more than anything that they would rent a whole floor of the hotel and stay on that floor because fans were so crazy. I mean there were women in the lobby with hair jacked to Jesus like I've never seen with their flared blue jeans with the eagle embroidered on the side. I mean this is so crazy, and then with their Alabama T-shirts on with the confederate flag, and I was going, 'This is like a movie.' And I was so young. I mean I was literally 19 or 20 at the time, and they were rock stars to me.

Audio: Wynonna says she remembers "Dixieland Delight" as Alabama's biggest song when she -- and her mother -- were on tour with them. OC: ...craziest for. :22 [phone quality]

"On the Marlboro Tour, it was Alabama, it was George Strait and The Judds. So, it was a pretty big deal pulling into those huge, huge arenas and then selling out. And 'Dixieland Delight' was, to me, their biggest song at the time...I just remember that song the most being the one that crowds would go the craziest for."

Audio: Kenny Chesney talks about his song "Keg in the Closet." OC: ...I don't know. :30

"'Keg in the Closet' is very much about my reality at the fraternity house...and I wrote some of my first songs on the roof of that fraternity house. And I dreamed about a lot of the stuff that I'm doing now on the roof of that fraternity house. And that's why I wrote 'Keg in the Closet.' There was this closet that we literally had a keg in, and we didn't care about anything else but if that thing was full or not. And so that's where I got the idea to write that song. It was very real and it still is real. Maybe they still got that keg in the closet up there. I don't know."