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Bullseye with Jesse Thorne is a production of maximum fun.org and is distributed by NPR. It's Bullseye I'm Jesse Thorne.

Tanya Tucker recorded her first single in 1972 when she was 13 years old.

It was called Delta Dawn. She cut it with Billy Cheryl, the veteran country producer who had collaborated with George Jones and Tammy

Wignette.

Delta Dawn is a sad story about a woman who was abandoned by her lover decades ago. It's not really a song for kids and Tanya Tucker

doesn't really sound like a kid on the record. We're going to play it in a bit.

You'll hear what I mean. was a smash there are dozens of

versions of the song from a copycat recording by the Australian country singer

Helen Reddy which hit even bigger than Tucker's version, to a cabaret version by Bet Midler.

Wayland Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, all cut it too.

The song launched Tucker's career, a Girl with the Voice of a Woman.

Since then, she's released about two dozen albums.

When I talked with her in 2020, she just cut while I'm living. It was her first record of original material in over 15 years. Eventually it won

best country album at the Grammys in 2020. Tucker has since released 2023's Sweet Western Sound, also great.

If you're in Nashville, there's some good news. She has her own drinking

establishment. Tanya Tucker's Tequila cantina features, among many other things, a $300

cocktail, which is essentially a 60-ounce margarita.

Seems maybe like too many ounces. Anyway, Tanya is a musical genius, a country legend, and an absolute delight to talk to as you're about to hear.

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