Back row: Jack White, the Recording Academy's George Flanigen and Neil Portnow,
Kid Rock and Garth Brooks; Front row: Gretchen Wilson, Martina McBride,
Loretta Lynn and Reba McEntire photo by CURTIS HILBUN/AFF

Some of country music’s biggest stars gathered to salute Loretta Lynn at the fabled Ryman Auditorium in Nashville last night. The occasion was the to-be-televised Grammy Salute to Country Music, and the honoree hit the stage just once. Loretta and Garth Brooks joined voices about halfway through the tribute on “After the Fire Is Gone,” a song she and Conway Twitty performed together back in the day.

Others there included rocker Jack White, Kid Rock, Martina McBride, Gretchen Wilson and Lee Ann Womack.

“Country music has never had a more truthful or a more fearless artist than the one we’re honoring here tonight,” host Reba McEntire said, according to The Tennessean.

“She stood up for all of us women, in an era when ‘Stand By Your Man’ was more than just a song . . . Loretta did it all. She wrote ’em, she sang ’em and she played ’em.”