The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile (2022)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Whether a fan of Tanya Tucker or Brandi Carlile or not, this remains one of the finest documentaries of 2022.
Inspiring, moving, poignant and endearing, The Return of Tanya Tucker… spotlights vulnerability and a growing friendship built on trust and instinct, while also capturing two incredibly talented and influential artists.
It is indeed quite something to see one person’s trepidations and fears crumble when a person offers them simple encouragement and a genuine belief that we all are worthy of every bit of success that comes our way.
NO
If neither Tanya Tucker or Brandi Carlile are of interest to you, seeing them create music together is not going to get you to watch this film, no matter how good a documentary it happens to be.
As great as this is, you wonder what didn’t make it into the film. Some have criticized the film for being a little too clean, too neat - and spending any time with Tucker seems to indicate that there is probably a fair amount glossed over or left behind in the final edit.
It is somehow hard for you to watch people renew a belief within themselves that they have a gift to share with the world.
OUR REVIEW
Poignant, moving, and as genuine a documentary about two friends as you will find, The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile takes viewers through the return of the legendary country singer in 2019, as Carlile works with Tucker to release her first new music in 17 years. In terms of music documentaries, this is one of the finest to come down the pike in recent years and told with an earnestness that becomes surprisingly emotional and affecting.
Kathlyn Horan’s film begins with Tucker’s preparations and arrival at the famed Sunset Sound recording studio in Hollywood. With a burst of pink accents to her white/silver hair, she is ready to work with someone whose music she is not familiar with. On the contrary, Carlile, widely acclaimed as one of the finest singer/songwriters of this generation, is amped and anxious to work with her number one hero and inspiration. As the two talk to one another for among the first time ever, Carlile talks about her realizing that, as a queer woman, she didn’t quite match with her gender and struggled to know where she fit in. Tucker exuded a defiance and a toughness that made anything seem possible to Carlile and nothing ever insurmountable. Tucker is struck and moved by the compliment.
Together, they are collaborating on a project called “Where I’m Livin’,” the 2019 album that earned Tucker four Grammy nominations and, at age 61, her first-ever Grammy wins for Best Country Album and Best Country Song (“Bring My Flowers Now”). That stirring ballad becomes the centerpiece of the film, borne out of an idea shared with Tucker’s mentor and best friend, Loretta Lynn. Originally, Tucker saw herself collaborating with Lynn on the idea of a person, looking at the finality of life, asking for someone to bring her flowers now, while she is still living. Carlile sees that concept and has Tucker share personal details from her life to complete the song. What took approximately 30 years to conceptualize, ultimately is written in approximately 30 minutes.
Throughout the film, Carlile and Tucker inspire one another, push each other, and fall into what becomes a lasting friendship. Whether visiting Carlile’s home in Maple Valley, Washington, or in the labyrinthine pathways of the recording studio, Tucker shares deeply personal stories about her life, of experiences with her parents, and in and around the industry. Carlile opens up and shares a connection with her family - wife Catherine and their daughter at the time (the couple now has two children).
Shooter Jennings, son of the late country music superstar Waylon Jennings, is a co-producer and performer on the album and accentuates the sessions with a note here and there and a steady hand behind the board. As archived clips and interview segments and news footage is shared from Tucker’s decades in the spotlight, we see a rebellious spirit on display. In 1972, at the age of 14, she turned down a guaranteed hit single, “The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.” (eventually a #1 Country hit for Donna Fargo), for the more mature-themed “Delta Dawn.” Originally performed by Bette Midler, Tucker’s version did not perform as well as Fargo’s single, but became an iconic signature moment for Tucker; a song she still performs to this very day.
She discusses her relationship with Glen Campbell, which went public in 1980, she at 18 and he at 44. Drugs and alcohol took hold. Sales declined. Comebacks, a term Tucker tells Carlile she hates because it has been used in reference to her career too many times, find varying levels of success through the years. As her career would stagnate and her relationships stumble, it would be the loss of her parents in the early 2000s which eventually sapped her confidence in recording and performing music.
Carlile proves to be the elixir which rejuvenates Tucker into the most critical acclaim she has received in decades, and the most profound recognition of her career. The magic surfaces when the two are together - friends, sisterly at times, a mother/daughter dynamic at other moments - Carlile is able to put her on stage in venues big and small. And in the end, Tucker gets her flowers, while she’s indeed living, discovering how to create a new chapter in a storybook career that finally is earning her praise she has long deserved.
The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile is so much more than a music documentary. Horan’s film a soaring, beautiful testament to how care and kindness can resurrect belief and confidence when even the most battle-tested and hardened souls find it difficult to step into a spotlight that once showered them in warmth and fame.
Few films capture the essence of vulnerability like this one does and Tucker, Carlile, and Horan have equally collaborated on one of the finest documentaries of the year.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Tanya Tucker, Brandi Carlile, Shooter Jennings
Director: Kathlyn Horan
Written by: Kathlyn Horan
Release Date: October 21, 2022
Sony Pictures Classics