Loretta Lynn The Definitive Collection

Loretta Lynn is often referred to as a "country music icon"; the fact is, that appellation sells her short. It doesn't get at her envelope-pushing brilliance, her courage or her remarkable vitality. Here's a more accurate description: great American artist. Period.

These 25 classic tracks form a sort of primer in the art of the Nashville turnaround, a country music staple in which the storyline is capped with a climactic twist, which serves to reshuffle everything leading up to it. When it's done right, the turnaround delivers the payoff with the concision of poetry and the perfect symmetry of algebra, and Lynn's own songs are designed as meticulously as the cover tunes, written by Nashville's canniest songsmiths.