Wednesday's 'Rat Saw God' is fearlessly, chaotically, grimly American

There was "a tear in every word," is how longtime producer Billy Sherrill once described Tammy Wynette's singing voice. It was the first lady of country music's signature: a trembling, anguished voice that seemed to hold a teardrop in each note. Wynette had the ability to sell songs like "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" or "I Don't Wanna Play House," '60s suburban melodramas as flat as paper dolls, with a devastation that rendered them into full-bodied human tragedies, her voice starting and halting like a broken train sputtering to its destination. It's on "Stand By Your Man," of course, where you can hear those tears gather into a full-on breakdown, that voice twisting into a wail with every high note. That singing was precisely why Wynette never wanted to release the song — begged Sherrill not to, actually. Wynette thought she sounded like a squealing pig.