While I'm Livin'

Tanya Tucker was already singing in a voice that conveyed grit and experience when she scored her first hit at age 13. In the half-century since, the veteran country star has released roughly two dozen albums. But While I’m Livin’, arriving on the heels of an extended quiet spell, is the first full-length she’s recorded that reflects—or, more accurately, magnifies—her life experiences and brassy persona. Shooter Jennings and Brandi Carlile, who both grew up with Tucker’s music, made it their crusade to produce an album that would present Tucker as an artist whose undiminished edge and seasoned wit qualify her as a legend. They selected songs, several of them written by Carlile and her frequent collaborators Tim and Phil Hanseroth, that dramatize Tucker's headstrong, hard-living ways and the pride she took in weathering hardship. She makes loping outlaw epics like "High Ridin' Heroes," "Hard Luck," and "Mustang Ridge" her own, and sounds more unvarnished than ever delivering soft, sentimental tunes like "The House That Built Me," "The Day My Heart Goes Still," and "Bring My Flowers Now."