Naturally, CMT's Sunday night (Oct. 30) broadcast of Coal Miner's Daughter: A Celebration Of The Life & Music Of Loretta Lynn — a memorial service held at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry House — was covers-heavy, with a who's who of peers singing Lynn's songs. Among the few exceptions was "Where Her Heart Has Always Been," a song performed by Alan Jackson, which he wrote about the 2017 death of his mother, Ruth Musick Jackson.
Beforehand, Jackson thanked Lynn's family for the opportunity to celebrate a fellow Country Music Hall of Fame member on one of the genre's most hallowed stages. He then explained why Lynn always reminded him of his mother: "Both were outgoing, sweet and genuine and would tell you exactly what was on their minds."
The faith-filled "Where Her Heart Has Always Been" first appeared on Jackson's 2021 album Where Have You Gone.
"I wrote it for [Mama's] funeral," Jackson said in a Behind the Song video. "I really love that track. I tried to write it the way that I knew she would appreciate it. And then, after we had cut it, and we were just about to finalize the record, my sister sent a recording of Mama reading from the Bible, or a Christmas story, or something from a few years ago that I hadn't heard. ... And I thought, 'Well, that'd be cool to put that on there.' So we tried to pick a little piece of that that didn't sound so Christmassy and put it on there, on the front end, and that made it really sweet.
"It's supposed to mean that she's with my daddy again, because — and I hope that's the way people hear it — because they were just like one of those couples that were together every moment, almost, of their whole life," he continued. "You know, day and night. Hardly ever apart, that I can remember. And they had a very unusual — unusual in that it was so nice and sweet, and it lasted like that."
Jackson's moving, acoustic moment highlighted a night co-starring the likes of George Strait, Tanya Tucker, Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, Margo Price, Jack White, Brandi Carlile, Little Big Town and The Highwomen (Carlile, Brittney Spencer, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires) and the following collaborations: Lukas Nelson with Emmy Russell and Wynonna Judd with Larry Strickland and the Gaithers.
Friends of Lynn providing video statements included Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Marty Stuart and Sissy Spacek.
