Like Mother, Like Daughters

It turns out the coal miner’s granddaughters can sing too. Otherwise known as country legend Loretta Lynn’s twin daughters, Peggy and Patsy, the Lynns are trying to forge their own identity as recording artists.

And even as their debut single, “Nights Like These,” climbs the country charts, the 33-year-old singer-songwriters are ready for the skepticism they know is headed their way. “I live in Nashville and I know the industry,” Peggy says. “I know that some will dismiss us as just another pair of star babies.”

That’s why the twins, former backup singers for their mother, billed themselves as the Honk-a-Billies and hid their identities while honing their songs and hoping to land a record deal during more than two years of steady performances at the legendary Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville.

“We didn’t want anybody to know of our lineage because it has to be about the music, period,” Peggy says. “It can’t be about, ‘Your aunt’s Crystal Gayle [Loretta Lynn’s youngest sister]’ or ‘Your mom’s Loretta Lynn.’ ”

Their music, blending honky-tonk and rockabilly, drew increasingly larger crowds to Tootsie’s and eventually piqued the interest of Warner/Reprise executives, who were captivated by the sisters’ harmony-rich sound and eye-catching stage presence.

“They’re beautiful women and they have a banter onstage that is so charming,” says Lisa Bradley, a Warner/Reprise artists and repertoire representative who alerted her boss, Doug Grau, to the Lynns. “And I just loved the music. There’s nobody else who sounds like them. It’s like old country but it sounds modern. They bring a respect for the heritage and tradition of the music that is somewhat lacking these days.”

Considering their background, that seems only natural.

Their mother has recorded more than a dozen chart-topping country hits, including “Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” and was the subject of the 1980 movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” for which Sissy Spacek won the best actress Oscar.

The twins first performed at Tootsie’s when they were toddlers, singing and dancing atop the bar on trips to the club with their father while their mother was performing a few steps away at the Ryman Auditorium.

“This is all we’ve ever done,” says Patsy, who lives about 65 miles southwest of Nashville on the family ranch in Humphreys County, Tenn. “We grew up with music all around us. I know singers say, ‘This was my dream.’ But this was our reality.”

Busy pursuing solo careers that never took off, the twins hadn’t considered a career as a duo before touring with their mother in 1990. Backstage one night, while their mother was teaching them the Everly Brothers’ hit “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” something clicked.

“The first note out of our mouths, harmonically, we knew that we were a duo,” says Patsy, who was named for her mother’s good friend, Patsy Cline. “We just looked at each other and knew.”

Right away, the sisters set about writing the songs that would form the heart of their Tootsie’s shows and, subsequently, their debut album, “The Lynns,” which is due Jan. 20 on Reprise Records.

“It’s wonderful what they’re doing,” says Nashville music critic Robert K. Oermann. “I love duos--real duos--and they are one. I love their harmony singing--and they’re wonderful writers. They’re country, and yet they’re very contemporary.”

The Lynns’ influences include the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, Chris Isaac and Buck Owens.

“But,” Peggy says, “our biggest influence, of course, is our mother--both in life and in art.”

Adds her sister: “You’re going to hear our mother in our music--and we want you to. But when you get through the whole record, you’ll know it’s the Lynns.”