THE RETURN OF TANYA TUCKER: FEATURING BRANDI CARLILE: 3 ½ STARS. “love letter.”
“The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile” is not a regular musical bio-doc. We get bits and pieces from Tucker’s legendary career, how she had her first hit with “Delta Dawn” when she was just thirteen-years-old, and her cocaine fueled relationship with country superstar Glen Campbell, but the focus here is the making of the 2019 album “While I’m Livin’.”
Produced by Shooter Jennings and country singer Brandi Carlile, it was Tucker’s first album in seventeen years, and earned a Grammy, her first ever.
Director Kathlyn Horan takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, a style that lends itself to revealing many organic and intimate moments of Tucker and her producers capturing the magic that is Tucker in full flight.
It also captures Carlile’s esteem for her elder. There’s palpable sense of second chances hanging over the proceedings as Carlile carefully and respectfully guides Tucker through the paces. The creative process reveals a deft and deep musical knowledge, and the importance of finding joy in the making of the art. Tucker’s career was marred by sexism and abuse, so this feels like a new beginning, a return to center stage, guided by Carlile’s steady hand.
It is a portrait of a legend who calls herself “just a country singer,” but with a voice that is imbued with the texture of a woman who has lived a life, and brings that experience to her art. At the heart, this is a love letter to Tucker, whose career has had as many ups as it has downs.
Come for the story, stay for the incredible music.
