Will Zooey Deschanel sing a Loretta Lynn classic at SDSU this summer?
We’ll find out when Deschanel, the star of the hit TV series, “New Girl,” performs here June 21 at the SDSU Open Air Theatre as half of She & Him, her rootsy duo with singer-songwriter M. Ward. (Trivia question: Is “New Girl” the only hit TV series to share its name with “New Girl,” a song by The Fingers, one of San Diego’s top indie-rock bands in the late 1970s and early ’80s? Why, yes, it is. Thank you for asking.)
Why the Loretta Lynn question? Because Deschanel was selected last May by the country-music legend to star in a Broadway musical adaptation of “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” The musical is named after Lynn’s classic song and autobiography, which in turn was made into a feature film starring Sissy Spacek (who, in 1980, won an Academy Award for her pitch-perfect portrayal of Lynn).
The She & Him tour is in support of the duo’s upcoming third album, the enigmatically titled “Volume 3.” It is due out May 7 on Merge Records and features cameos by Mike Watt, Rilo Kiley’s Pierre de Reeder, NRBQ’s Joey Spampinato and others.
Tickets for She & Him’s SDSU show are priced at $30-$45 each, plus service fees (which brings those prices to $40.50 and $58.75 each, respectively). They go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at ticketmaster.com, and by phone at (800) 743-3000.
Two online-only pre-sales begin Thursday morning at 10 a.m.
Meanwhile, we’re daydreaming about the prospect of hearing Deschanel dig into such Lynn classics as “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Fist,” “Your Squaw Is on the Warpath” and 1974’s “The Pill,” the first major hit by a female country artist to address birth control.