Lynn Covers a Vibrant Career With Heart

“Stand by Your Man” was Tammy Wynette’s signature song, but it’s LorettaLynn’s life creed. So much so that she quit performing in the mid-’80s to care for her ailing husband, Mooney Lynn, whom she married when she was 14 and who died in 1996.

Now the Coal Miner’s Daughter is touring again and has a new album, “Still Country,” a gripping new collection that often expresses the insurmountable loss of a life partner of nearly half a century.

The best news about her show Wednesday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts is that it was a rewarding return-to-the-public arena on almost all counts.

Her voice, though struggling early to compete with her forceful 10-man band, came through by the end with the vibrancy and strength that’s made her one of country music’s greatest singers.

But anyone hoping for a plunge into the riches of “Still Country,” her first new album in 14 years, due due in stores Tuesday, was left to wait for another day.

She sang just two songs from it: “God’s Country,” a nicely detailed song she wrote about her humble roots, something she’s done regularly during her 40-year recording career, and “Country in My Genes,” a spunky but skimpier new tune she didn’t write.

Both are up-tempo numbers that essentially bridge such album standouts as “Table for Two,” “On My Own Again” and “I Can’t Hear the Music,” tear-your-heart-out ballads that carry the full power of nakedly revealing songwriting. Perhaps this strong-willed 66-year-old simply isn’t ready to go there yet.

Instead, she offered a career-spanning set of her greatest hits in an 80-minute performance that also got a boost from a four-song mid-show appearance by her twin daughters, Patsy and Peggy, a.k.a. the Lynns.