Tanya Tucker and Brandi Carlile are the focal points of a forthcoming documentary, The Return of Tanya Tucker. The film, due out this fall, will chronicle Tucker’s career resurgence in 2019 following her album While I’m Livin’, which Carlile co-produced and also had a large hand in writing.
In its first trailer, the film promises to chronicle Tucker’s career and navigate how, decades after she faded from the spotlight, the singer found her way back into country music with help from her partnership with Carlile.
“I have loved Tanya Tucker since I was eight years old,” Carlile explains in the clip. “Tanya’s voice is in all of us that sing country music. And it’s time for us to do an about-face and recognize that.”
On her resurgence, Tucker reflects, “The ability to leave behind something. And I guess music is, you know, the gift I have.”
Directed by Kathlyn Horan, The Return of Tanya Tucker will use archival footage to tell the story of Tucker’s career, as well as contemporary footage from the recording process of While I’m Livin’.
The trailer also shows Carlile explaining her vision for While I’m Livin’ — the first album of original material that Tucker had put out since 2002’s Tanya — saying, “I want this record to be a renaissance period in her life.”
The album brought Tucker her very first Grammy Awards: It won Best Country Album in 2020, and one of its tracks, “Bring My Flowers Now,” won Best Country Song. Tucker also performed “Bring My Flowers Now” on the Grammys stage.