Jeannie Seely, Country Music's Oldest Working Woman, Says She's 'Recreating History' with New Song (Exclusive)

Seely opens up to PEOPLE about recording her new song, "Suffertime"

• Jeannie Seely's latest single, "Suffertime," is out now

• The Grammy winner opens up to PEOPLE about recording the song, originally released by Dottie West, at Nashville's historic RCA Studio B

• She's currently working on more new music to come
  

At 84 years old, Jeannie Seely is the oldest working woman in country music — and no one is more surprised than she is.

"Can you believe what's going on with me?" the Grammy winner tells PEOPLE. "This is crazy. It's just phenomenal that I'm still able to be doing this."

On July 19, Seely released her new song, "Suffertime," to digital platforms. She recorded the song at Nashville's historic RCA Studio B, and its arrival comes along with a 40-minute documentary and music video.

"We're recreating history," Seely said. "I'm just doing things, truthfully, that just sound fun to do."

Seely wanted to record a classic country song with a blues treatment and decided on a piece she wrote that her friend Dottie West recorded. She's always loved "Suffertime" but had forgotten about it.

During a 2023 Grand Ole Opry appearance, the audience immediately reacted when she started singing the song — so she decided to record it for fun. Her creative director, Ron Harman, suggested returning to RCA Studio B, where Seely initially recorded the song and had her first recording session in 1964. With that in mind, she and her team opted to add a video component.

Country music great Steve Wariner played with West, and Seely invited him to participate in her session. She also asked Country Music Hall of Famer and studio musician Charlie McCoy, who recorded with West, into the studio.

"It was such a thrill for me to have him there," Seely said of McCoy. "We were getting so much really good stuff that we just kept videoing. I guess I'm doing things that I've never done while I still can, whether they were on a bucket list or not. If we think of something, let's do it. It's called, 'Enjoying my life and what's left of this career.'"

Seely's first-ever recording session was at RCA Studio B, and since she returned there to do "Suffertime," she set the record for the vocalist with the longest timespan between recording sessions at the historic Music Row studio.

Seely and and another decades-long country star, Kitty Wells, were dear friends until Wells' 2012 passing. She was 92 when she died, but Seely remembers her friend's 80th birthday party.

"I was standing there watching her and thinking, 'I wonder what it feels like to have a career that lasts this long,'" Seely said. "And now mine has actually gone longer than what hers did. I just feel blessed every day. I tell everybody I'm not retired; I just quit working. They're two different things. I only do what I enjoy. If it sounds like too much work, I just know we don't want to do that."

Related: She's an Opry Record-Setter: Jeannie Seely Celebrates Over 5,000 Performances on Country's Most Famous Stage

Seely doesn't tour anymore, but she does play a few special dates on occasion, including an upcoming event with Bill Anderson. The two artists are close friends and often compare stories about aging in the country music industry. They speak on the phone almost daily.

"Our audiences are getting older, not able to travel, not able to go to these events, and they were what we did it for," she said. "Those were our people. We did all that for them."

Seely said Anderson is sharp and witty, and they've recently written a couple of songs together. However, the pair are such good friends that it took them a while to write together.

"It was so funny," she said. "After so many years, I'd said, 'One day, Bill, are we ever going to write a song together?'"

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They called each other frequently and talked about songs they'd written with other people, but never teamed to try it together. Seely said they're now working on a couple of different projects.

She recently finished songwriting with some of country music's most successful songwriters, including Gary Burr, Victoria Shaw, Bobby Tomberlin and Buddy Cannon, along with Erin Enderlin and country queen Trisha Yearwood.

"I wanted to write with them because I can write country shuffles in my sleep," she said. "I wanted to write something with these people who know how to write today's music. And what I am hearing from them is, 'We like to write with you because you say things different.'"

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