Jean Shepard, ‘Honky Tonk Heroine,” Country Music Foundation Records. ***

This Oklahoma native was only 19 in 1953 when she recorded “A Dear John Letter” at the Capitol studios in Hollywood. The song--a farewell letter to an overseas soldier--was just something to put on the flip side of her next single, but the song, featuring a recitation by country singer Ferlin Husky, caught on with disc jockeys and made Shepard a star.

The record spent six weeks at No. 1 on the country charts, prompting Shepard and Husky to record a sequel. Unfortunately, we don’t get to hear “Forgive Me, John,” because album compiler Daniel Cooper dismisses it as too “dreary,” as he puts it in the album booklet.

Mostly, however, Cooper has wisely selected Shepard’s best recordings rather than simply her most commercially successful. She wasn’t a stylist with the individuality and power of a Patsy Cline or an Emmylou Harris, but she sings with a honky-tonk authenticity and spirit.

*

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