Jason Petty and Emily Portman both found their way to tribute performances through musical theater.
Petty played the lead of country music pioneer Hank Williams in Hank Williams: Lost Highway while Portman starred as country icon Loretta Lynn in It’s Only Make Believe .
Little Jimmy Dickens, who was close friends with Williams, came backstage before a show.
“He said, ‘I just came here to tell you: Don't mess this up,’” Petty recalled. “‘This man meant more to this industry than any other single person, and he meant more to all the people like me than any other single person.’”
IF YOU GO What: Always Loretta and
Hank and My Honky Tonk Heroes: 100 Years of Hank When: 8 p.m. Sept. 20 and Nov. 9
Where: The Valentine Theatre, 410 Adams St., Toledo
Tickets: Ranging from $29 to $59, remaining tickets are buy one get one free with the online code “Blade” at
valentinetheatre.com or at the Valentine box office or by calling 419-242-2787
But stopping by the dressing room again after the show, singer Little Jimmy was in tears, Petty said. The show later made it off Broadway.
Portman said she’s always had a “very real and mysterious connection” to Lynn — which is something the late artist had even once said to Portman.
“I had a natural sound of her, which I wasn't aware of,” Portman said. “And I had some of these professionals stand back and tell me, ‘You sound like Loretta Lynn when you sing and when you talk.’”
Portman has taken advantage of that gift for more than 25 years and is bringing her show, Always Loretta , to the Valentine Theatre on Sept. 20, which also features members of Lynn’s band, the Coalminers.
Petty’s show, My Honky Tonk Heroes: 100 Years of Hank , will later bring the story of the mastermind to the Valentine in November.
New audiences
Matt Lentz, director of marketing and programming at the Valentine, said the theater is aiming to expand its audiences. While country is an audience he knows is here, he said they tend to only be served through big names performing at arena-size venues.
“I think younger audiences are more interested in things of yesteryear, vintage performers, and the people that were the roots of the music they love,” Lentz said.
Petty, wearing a cowboy hat on a Zoom call, agreed that tribute music often hits people deeply by bringing back old memories.
“When you're a kid, your parents and your grandparents listen to certain music, and, of course, your gut reaction as a kid is to not like it because you can't like what your parents like,” the singer said. “When you get older and you lose your parents or your grandparents, you become nostalgic for them, and you want to listen to the things that they were listening to. That's what I'm finding is happening.”
He added that people interested in the history of country music should hear Hank Williams’ music. Although he died at age 29, Williams had a significant influence on the genre, including people like Loretta Lynn. “They didn't even call it country music until Hank came along,” Petty said.
Petty and Portman each feel that country music today is not what it once was.
“When you consider what they play today versus the Loretta Lynn style, the music is just a lot more charming,” Portman said. “Even the lyrics are more deep. … It's almost like everything I listen to on today's radio is kind of the same.”
She said Lynn’s music is both timeless and relatable.
But the genre today has “become less about honesty and truth, and more about the business,” Petty noted.
“I've heard 50,000 songs about a dirt road and a pickup truck and [probably] none of them have a pickup truck or been on a dirt road,” he said.
The late Williams would explain that he just writes what he feels, Petty said.
“That's what I love about roots music ... you're writing personal experience, and it makes it honest, and it makes it truthful,” he said. “To me, what country music was all about in its inception was honesty. It's been called three chords and the truth, which is basically what it is.”
A Hank Williams show
Petty became familiar with Williams’ music through Elvis Presley — at a concert, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll performed Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” saying that it’s the saddest song he’d ever heard. And it’s Petty’s favorite song on his show’s set list.
He describes his show as a musical narrative that tells the story of Williams and his influence on country music. He incorporates stories he’s collected from people who personally knew the singer, including from having a monthly lunch for 10 years with Williams' best friend.
The tribute’s four-piece band is authentic to the instruments in the original band: There’s no drum because Williams toured without a drum, and a non-pedal steel guitar because the pedal steel guitar hadn’t been invented until after he died in 1953.
“We don't mess with the music,” Petty said, “because people want to hear what they heard on the record, on the radio all those years ago.”
He started touring 100 Years of Hank in 2005.
“Come ready to really get engrossed in the music and the story,” Petty said of his November performance in Toledo. “It's funny, it's sad, it's uplifting, and it's heartbreaking.
“It’s a whirlwind.”
A Loretta Lynn show
Toledoan Rick Cornett has already seen Always Loretta about a dozen times. But he’s still excited for Portman’s upcoming show — during which he’ll go on stage to offer about 10 trivia questions — as well as five others later this year.
The Loretta Lynn superfan said Portman’s show is very authentic. "That's what blows people away with her: her look, her mannerisms, and the way she can sing," Cornett said.
“The show that we do is set up very similar to the way she would do a show, as far as the way the songs are set up and the little things she might say,” Portman said. “When I do the show, it's first person. I'm an actress. I sing, I'm a vocalist, but then it's an act, because the audience is getting the feel of seeing Loretta Lynn like they would have 30 or 40 years ago.”
The band features people who knew or worked with Lynn, including some of the original Coalminers.
Cornett said both artists’ performances are personal, interactive, and welcoming. He saw Lynn perform more than 500 times and formed a 50-year friendship with her before her death in 2022.
“She had a very loyal, die hard fan base to the end, people just gravitated to her because she was so relatable,” he said, adding that she made herself accessible to her fans. “There was no difference between the on-stage Loretta and the off-stage. Loretta. She was the same person.”
His years of time spent with Lynn on her tour bus, backstage, and at events has led to a friendship with Portman, who turns to him for advice on how Lynn would dress or talk.
Portman started her own Loretta Lynn tribute shows more than two decades ago. In the last few years, she’s gotten connected with some of the Coalminers, and they decided to come together to honor the Queen of Country Music’s memory.
The group will release later this month a new record featuring some old album cuts and some original works.
“She knew about us getting together and the show getting ready to start, and she was in full support of it,” said Portman, who’d had the chance to meet Lynn a handful of times. “And I was just really so honored that she was such a sweetheart to me.”
“I'm just really glad that they started this Loretta Lynn tribute show to keep her musical legacy going for the next generation,” Cornett said.
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