Lynn Anderson

Lynn Anderson rose to prominence primarily through her Grammy-winning hit single "Rose Garden," ranking among the leading female country vocalists of the early 1970s in part because of frequent national television exposure. Born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, she spent her childhood in Sacramento, California, where her mother Liz worked as a professional songwriter whose credits included Merle Haggard's early successes "(All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" and "The Fugitive," the latter co-written with her husband Carey. Anderson herself took up music early, performing regularly as a singer and guitarist throughout her teenage years.

During the mid-'60s Liz Anderson secured her own recording contract on the strength of demo tapes that sometimes included background vocals by Lynn. While visiting Nashville together, Lynn recorded her debut single, a duet with Jerry Lane, for the small Chart label. Her first solo release arrived in 1966 with "In Person," followed in 1967 by her initial Top 40 entry, her mother's composition "Ride, Ride, Ride." She quickly advanced into the country Top Five with three successive releases: 1967's "If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away)," 1968's "Promises, Promises," and 1969's "That's a No No." Those achievements earned her a regular weekly slot on The Lawrence Welk Show, making her the sole country performer of that era to hold such a position on any network program; she eventually left the series after objecting to stereotypical haywagon backdrops yet continued appearing on numerous other variety shows.

In 1970 Anderson relocated to Nashville alongside her husband, the writer and producer Glenn Sutton, and signed with Columbia Records. She soon delivered the biggest hit of her career, Joe South's "Rose Garden," which reached the top of the country charts while climbing to number three on the pop side. The track earned her a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and registered as a hit across fifteen countries. Although she never repeated that level of crossover success, she amassed fourteen additional country Top Ten singles through 1974, among them the number-one entries "How Can I Unlove You," "You're My Man," "Keep Me in Mind," and "What a Man, My Man Is." Her chart momentum eased during the later 1970s, yet she maintained consistent releases and returned to the Top Ten with 1979's "Isn't It Always Love." After departing Columbia in 1981 she scored one final Top Ten single, 1984's "You're Welcome to Tonight," on the Permian label. Apart from a lone MCA single and a Mercury album, she remained largely inactive for the rest of the decade; in 1992 she issued Cowboy's Sweetheart on the independent Delta imprint.

Anderson reemerged in 2000 with the live recording Live at Billy Bob's Texas. Four years later she released the studio project The Bluegrass Sessions, presenting bluegrass arrangements of her earlier hits from the 1960s and 1970s. The album received favorable notices and earned a 2005 Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Following the nomination she performed at the Grand Ole Opry, joining vocalist Martina McBride for a duet on her signature song "Rose Garden." In the ensuing years she sustained an active schedule of live appearances, including sets at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville in 2007, the Stagecoach Festival in Palm Springs in 2009, and multiple concerts with the Metropole Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and 2011.

June 2015 brought the release of her album Bridges, her first studio recording in more than a decade, which included guest appearances by the Oak Ridge Boys and the Martins. On July 30, 2015, Anderson died of a heart attack at age 67 after being hospitalized in Nashville for pneumonia.