How do two young country singers, one male and one female, recreate the sound, visuals and feel of Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn?
It runs in their blood. They are the actual grandchildren of the late great country music duo.
Tre Twitty is the grandson of Conway. Tayla Lynn is the granddaughter of Loretta.
They bring their national tour to Alabama this Friday, January 31 with a 7 p.m. show at the Enterprise Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are available here.
Adult tickets are $35. Student tickets are $10.
Conway and Loretta toured together prior to 1981. The Friday show is basically the same show that Conway and Loretta did. While Conway died in 1993, Loretta lived long after, long enough to go herself and see Tre and Tayla perform "Twitty & Lynn." Can you imagine Loretta re-living a chapter of country music history and a part of her own life? Well, you get to see what she saw in Enterprise Friday.
Nashville comes to Alabama.
And if you just cannot get there, you will have a second chance. "Twitty & Lynn" come back to Alabama on June 13 at the Oxford Performing Arts Center. Details are here.
Here’s a tip for those that go to the show. Pay careful attention when the show first starts. There’s a magic moment that you don’t want to miss. It sets the stage for the whole experience.
Here is a description of the show from the official trailer:
There’s a moment right at the beginning that affords country music fans the chance to look back in time. Just after the band plays the signature intro to “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” Tre Twitty and Tayla Lynn shoot each other a glance that summons the electrifying chemistry of their grandparents.
Audiences can’t believe their eyes. From that moment, for the next 90 minutes, they’re in the presence of living country music history.
“Fans have told Tayla and me that when they see us onstage singing, talking, and just looking at each other, they think, ‘Wow, there must be something genetic in those two families,’” Tre says. “It validates the experience of the concert for them. We’re telling our grandparents’ story through our story.”
“I think of us as the ambassadors of the Twitty and Lynn names — we’re just the new version of what they’ve already established,” Tre says. “But we also want to be caretakers of the past. At our shows, we get generations of fans because country music is passed down.”
“It’s about family — the fans’ families and our own,” Tayla says. “We have so much love and respect for Conway and Loretta and we want to carry this on in such a way that we make our families proud.”
Loretta herself was impressed. The Country Music Hall of Fame member helped her granddaughter and Tre with their show and had the same time-traveling experience that today’s audiences do while watching them perform. “Memaw just loved it. It brought up so many memories of Conway for her and took her back to a place in her life when they were building their careers. She’d always say that Tre has Conway’s heart,” says Tayla, who lives at Lynn’s Tennessee ranch and used to tour with her grandmother, cuddling up together in the bus’s bedroom to watch old movies while on the road. “We were very close,” she says.
Tayla first had the idea for the show after witnessing Tre perform Conway’s songs during a concert at the ranch. She approached him about teaming up and, after a few shows to test the waters, they embarked on a tour of Canada in 2018. “Even though we didn’t grow up together, meeting each other wasn’t like meeting strangers,” Tayla says. “It was like we had always known each other because we had the same experiences.”
In 2022, they made their debut on the world-famous Grand Ole Opry, singing “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” on the very same circle of wood where Conway and Loretta once stood.
The duo credits their show’s popularity to the timeless songs of Conway and Loretta — duets like “After the Fire Is Gone” and “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly” are all in the set, along with Conway and Loretta solo hits like “Hello, Darlin’” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” But they’re also giving audiences a chance to relive a moment in time that ended far too soon: Conway and Loretta stopped touring together full-time in 1981, and Conway died in 1993. “Conway has been gone 30 years,” Tre says. “Had Poppy lived, I think there would have been a great second act for him and Loretta. There’s a lot of people that wanted to see that, and we’re able to let them hear those songs and stories again.”
Honest emotion, along with Tre and Tayla’s innate chemistry, is what defines their onstage performances. Whether they’re singing to each other or interacting with the audience, there’s an easygoing authenticity that comes across. Tayla even talks to the crowd about her sobriety, sharing a personal tale of struggle and redemption.
In the end, though, their goal is to entertain while, at the same time, honoring their grandparents. Tre is lobbying for Conway, already a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Tayla is working on preserving not just Loretta’s music but her fashion: she wore one of her grandmother’s outfits onstage at the Opry.
“Conway and Loretta used to do everything with so much passion: the way they dressed, the way they recorded, the way they performed,” Tayla says. “We want to bring that to fans who were lucky enough to see our grandparents before and to those who are just learning about them.”
“Our show gives people an idea of what Loretta and Conway were like through their grandchildren’s eyes,” adds Tre. “It’s a special gift to keep that flame burning.”
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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