Patty Loveless Albums (16)
'Mountain Soul II'
Release Date 9/29/2009
Tracks 15
Label Saguaro Road
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
For the record: Patty Loveless' Mountain Soul II is not a strict sequel to its 2001 predecessor. Whereas the former album was chock-full of bluegrass tunes both historical and contemporary, the sequel is a far more diverse collection that includes traditional songs, country music classics, and some new originals -- and yes, there are a couple of bluegrass tunes in the mix. Loveless and her husband, producer Emory Gordy, Jr., recruited a remarkable cast of players and backing vocalists, and wrote some stellar tunes to put alongside hallmark favorites on this mostly acoustic date. The guests are a star-studded list of session players and singers including Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Rebecca Lynn Howard, steel boss Al Perkins, and fiddler Stuart Duncan, to mention only a slim few. The set opens with a mountain version of Harlan Howard's standard "Busted," featuring no less than bluegrass legend Del McCoury on guitar and lead chorus vocal and son Ronnie on mandolin; Rob Ickes plays Dobro and Bryan Sutton plays banjo (these latter three appear on multiple cuts). It's followed by an utterly moving version of Susannah Clark and Rodney Crowell's broken love song "Fools Thin Air," with Mike Auldridge on Dobro and Carl Jackson on banjo. There is a stellar vocal trio on the traditional "Friends in Gloryland," sung a cappella with Gill and Howard. The pair also appears with Loveless on the gorgeous "Blue Memories." Another a cappella number is Loveless and Gordy's "(We Are All) Children of Abraham," with the Burnt Hickory Primitive Baptist Congregation, who sound more like pre-Thomas Dorsey gospel music than the postwar historical model. There is a lovely version of Barbara Keith's "Bramble and the Rose," before the album closes with Kostas' tender leaving song "Feelings of Love" and "Diamond in My Crown," the latter penned by Emmylou Harris and Paul Kennerley. This last track, with Harris on tenor backing vocal and Butch Lee on a vintage pump organ, leaves the set on a haunting, lonesome note. Mountain Soul II is every bit as fine as the original Mountain Soul was, and is more adventurous. Loveless and Gordy make no concessions to contemporary country music and don't seem to give a damn about the charts. Loveless has built a following that may not be in the millions anymore, but it is plentiful enough in numbers to support her enthusiastically in whatever endeavor she attempts to undertake. And why not? Since 2000, every record she's released has been at least as good as the one that preceded it, and this is no exception. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Who would have thought that recording an album of classic country tunes from a bygone era would be the most radical act a country artist could commit? When it's 2008 and contemporary country sounds are wound so deep in an identity crisis that threatens to exhaust every bit of its vitality and creativity. Since much of contemporary country borrows so heavily from the clichéd production standards -- not to mention compositional styles -- of '70s and '80s rock, both north and south of the Mason Dixon line, it takes a talent as big as Patty Loveless' to remind the punters where the music came from and what qualities make it timeless and immeasurably valuable. As writer Holly Gleason's fine liner essay attests, Loveless has long been one of country music's gentry artists (a genuine lineage holder to the tradition). Having begun her professional career as a songwriter at the age of 14, at 51 she's a seasoned veteran with an authentic story -- raised in a holler by a coal-mining father, she began singing with her brother at the age of 12. These 14 songs, chosen from hundreds and produced by her celebrated husband, Emory Gordy, Jr., are all from the canon and undisputed classics of the repertoire. They were recorded with genuine attraction and enthusiasm by an artist whose voice signifies the very best of the tradition's qualities -- without falling into the museum-piece trap. From Felice & Boudleaux Bryant's title track (sung with Vince Gill), Ralph Mooney's "Crazy Arms," that scored big for Ray Price, and "Why Baby Why," a tune George Jones co-wrote (his presence is invoked either as a songwriter or as an inspiration no less than four times here), and Dickey Lee's "He Thinks I Still Care," (a hit for Jones who replaced the pronoun), Loveless takes each of these cuts deep into the well of her heart and let's them rip. Gordy's production understands that the object of accompaniment is to be true to the song and drenches these tunes in pedal steel, hushed, shuffling drums, fiddles, electric guitars, and Hargus "Pig" Robbins' piano. He showers them in emotion and Loveless simply needs to open her mouth to tell the story behind the words to get it across to the listener, where it resonates deeply. While a song like "There Stands the Glass" has been recorded many times, this is the only version that comes close to the Webb Pierce hit. Jedd Hughes makes an appearance on "That's All It Took" to reclaim this song from the shelves. It's less dramatic than the Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris version of the tune, but it's also more nakedly emotional. Penny Jay Moyer's classic cheating song"Don't Let Me Cross Over," is delivered without irony or humor; in the grain of Loveless' voice, the song becomes true and urgent entreaty. Her reading of Hal Blair's "Please Help Me I'm Falling" erases all distance between performer and listener. This set closes with Hank Williams, Sr.'s "Cold, Cold Heart." Loveless treats these songs without even a trace of nostalgia, but as the living embodiment of stories that not only transfer emotion, but reveal the hidden truths of love, life, sadness, grief, and wisdom gained by experience. If ever we needed a record of country music classics it's now, but to have them delivered by one of the greatest talents the music ever produced -- a singer still very much in her prime -- is a gift beyond measure. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Patty Loveless breaks the Nash Vegas mold. She's living proof that talent -- God-given and well-tended -- is enough to keep listeners' attention over the years. Loveless worked hard to get where she is by consistently offering solid records, full of fine material and passionate, true performances. Dreamin' My Dreams is no exception, in fact;, it may be a crowning achievement in a career full of them. Produced by husband Emory Gordy and Justin Niebank, the set features 12 tracks by writers as diverse as Richard Thompson (the stunning, rocking opener "Keep Your Distance"), Steve Earle (a fine reading of "My Old Friend the Blues"), Allen Reynolds (the wonderful title track), Delaney Bramlett ("Never Ending Song of Love" with Dwight Yoakam as a duet partner), and Gordy (who wrote "Big Chance" with Loveless and "When I Reach the Place I'm Going" with Joe Henry), just to mention a few. Players include guitar slinger Albert Lee and fiddle ace Stuart Duncan. This is an adventurous outing for the likes of Music City. But Loveless has a track record that demands she get to take chances. Her voice (which gets better with age) never strays from the heart and soul of country music's grand tradition. The ballads here (such as "Nobody Here by That Name" or "When Being Who You Are Is Not Enough," by Jim Lauderdale and Leslie Satcher) are otherworldly; the rockers, such as Delbert McClinton's "Same Kind of Crazy" and Thompson's tune, strut, swagger, and dig deep into the basics of love and loss. Ultimately, the sheer range of sounds, emotions, and the integrity of Loveless' voice make Dreamin' My Dreams a candidate for country album of the year. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Who says country music is dead? Patty Loveless and her producer, husband Emory Gordy, Jr. obviously don't give a damn about what's popular in the morally reprehensible and artistically bankrupt world of Nash Vegas (anti)culture this week. On Your Way Home picks up where the rootsy heart of Loveless' awesome Mountain Soul left off -- with a solid, emotionally moving, honestly delivered set of honest-to-God country songs written by fine contemporary songwriters. These 11 songs lend a glimmering hope that the major labels in the heart of the beast of modern country haven't been totally swallowed by aesthetic greedy blindness. The album opens with "Draggin' My Heart Around," by Paul Kennerley and Marty Stuart, full of guitars -- both acoustic and electric, caressed by a lonesome fiddle and pedal steel, and a honky tonk two-step rhythm. The tale is classic, about a man doing his woman wrong and the woman in near despair, but the delivery is up-tempo and defiant. The old folksy mountain groan that opens "Nothin' but the Lonely," a seemingly transformed old fiddle tune, takes the listener back to a time out of space, a color out of time, a place where the song revealed someone's truth. Not their production values. And then there's that sheen of country boogie and rockabilly in the Al Anderson/Gary Nicholson/Jessie Alexander-penned "I Wanna Believe," driven as much by a pair of fiddles as an electric guitar and a subtle double-time beat. As for ballads, like the title track, leave it to Matraca Berg and whomever she happens to be writing with -- in this case the wonderful Ronnie Samoset -- to deliver the consummate broken yet determined break-up song every time. In Loveless' voice, this song is an issue of profound truth for the protagonist; she is the one waiting up for the lies and excuses. In fact, in each of these songs Loveless offers everyday life as episodic revelation and epiphany. Her voice is a full million miles deep, full of mystery, pathos, and a hard-won tenderness. Nowhere is this more evident than in Roger Brown's Celtic-flavored country waltz "Born Again Fool." Here Loveless is the storyteller, offering both empathy and plainspoken wisdom about a man who actually believes a woman can save him from himself. There is no "I told you so" doublespeak here, and both people in the tale contain elements of victimization and perpetration. The shuffling honky tonk of "Lookin' for a Heartache" -- written by Jim Lauderdale with Buddy and Julie Miller -- swings with pure Texas aplomb. Likewise, Rodney Crowell's "Lovin' All Night" is shuffling, scuffling rootsy rock & roll disguised as up-tempo honky tonk. The final song on the disc, "The Grandpa I Know," is caressed by a dobro and mandolins and falls like a prayer from Loveless' mouth. Turning away from the shell left by a recently departed loved one is disregarded in favor of vibrant, reverent memory. In a lesser singer's voice, this cut might seem corny or superficial; in that loose, untamable grain in Loveless' instrument, it is an epitaph that holds the story of an entire life. Ultimately, On Your Way Home is further proof that in her midforties, Loveless is a singer who has just reached the pinnacle of musical and artistic greatness she has worked so hard for and has become a vocalist entitled to a legacy in the rich lineage of historic country music. It's alive and well in her care. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Bluegrass and White Snow: A Mountain Christmas'
Release Date 10/29/2002
Tracks 13
Label Sony
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
In the wake of the success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, with its traditional country and bluegrass music, Epic Records green-lighted Patty Loveless' plan to record an acoustic country album, and she earned critical kudos and respectable sales for 2001's Mountain Soul. Bluegrass and White Snow: A Mountain Christmas, her holiday follow-up, repeats the approach on a collection of traditional and original seasonal music. As with Mountain Soul, Loveless and her husband and producer, Emory Gordy, Jr., display their knowledge of bluegrass and mountain music, filling the tracks with mandolins, dobros, and fiddles, over which Loveless sings fervently in her Kentucky twang. But the songs on Mountain Soul tended to be ones written in the styles in which they were being played, whereas many of the Christmas carols heard here are being adapted to these arrangements. "Silver Bells," for example, isn't even a traditional song, but rather a composition by the Hollywood movie songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and "Little Drummer Boy," another ringer, is given perhaps its first arrangement not to feature any drums. Meanwhile, in his pursuit of a mountain sound, Gordy isn't above eliminating his wife, whose name is on the front of the album: "Carol of the Bells" is an instrumental featuring the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble on which Loveless does not perform. The album is better, and sounds more authentic, on country-oriented material such as "Christmas Time's a Comin'" and "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem," and on the three new songs written by Loveless and Gordy, especially the up-tempo "Santa Town" and "Christmas Day at My House," which should have been sequenced earlier on the disc for better balance. So, while effective, the album is not as good as it could have been. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
A 180-degree departure from contemporary commercial country music, album number six from the always dynamic Loveless is like a breath of fresh air on a steamy summer afternoon. Mountain Soul is a rare and brilliant acoustic 14-track album of bluegrass mountain music. Amidst the mandolins, fiddles, and banjos is Loveless' harking alto voice, singing from her soul to the music she grew up with. Just when you thought the days of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe, and the Stanley Brothers were gone, Loveless brings them back with new life and staggering grace. Rounding out this ubiquitous collection are soft-singing collaborators Travis Tritt, Ricky Skaggs, and Rebecca Lynn Howard. ~ Maria Konicki Dinoia, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
"I tell you what, we're in a rut," Patty Loveless sang in "That's the Kind of Mood I'm In," the single released in May 2000 in advance of her tenth album, Strong Heart, which followed in August. The song, a plea from one lover to another to shake up a stale romance, also worked as an unintended metaphor for Loveless' career, as the 43-year-old, who had enjoyed widespread success in country music from the late '80s to the mid-'90s, struggled to stand up to a newly pop-oriented Nashville. "That's the Kind of Mood I'm In" bowed somewhat to Faith Hill's approach, though (to its credit) it ended up sounding more Cajun than crossover, but by the time Strong Heart was released it had only gotten into the lower reaches of the country Top 40, not boding well for the album's commercial prospects. Even so, it turns out to be another well-balanced set of songs from a singer who can give effective performances in a variety of styles and tempos. The most impressive harder-rocking tunes are "You Don't Get No More," which sounds like a ZZ Top song, and the bluesy "The Key of Love," songs you can imagine Loveless singing in a roadhouse on a Saturday night. The chaste ballads "My Heart Will Never Break This Way Again" and "Thirsty" (the latter featuring Travis Tritt on harmony vocals) sound like singles, but the song that cries out to be a country hit is "She Never Stopped Loving Him," one of those big, sentimental, string-filled country ballads that ends in the cemetery. True to form, Loveless and Gordy somewhat underplay it, when this kind of tearjerker should be done all out or not at all. At any rate, Strong Heart is a worthy addition to her catalog. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Long Stretch of Lonesome'
Release Date 9/30/1997
Tracks 10
Label Epic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Patty Loveless has created one of the most consistent bodies of work within contemporary country, and Long Stretch of Lonesome does nothing to erase the notion that she is one of the finest singers of the '90s. Stylistically, there isn't much difference between Long Stretch of Lonesome and her other records, but the key to its success is Loveless' unerring knack for picking the right material. Usually, contemporary country albums have a few hit singles surrounded by filler, but with any Loveless album, you can expect consistently excellent material, and this is no exception. ~ Thom Owens, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Having broken through at the tail-end of the neo-traditionalist trend in country in the 1980s, Patty Loveless was one of the few established artists to navigate the transition into the post-Garth pop-country trend of the '90s. Trouble with the Truth, her third album and the follow-up to the CMA Album of the Year When Fallen Angels Fly, found her again relying on her steady stable of writers -- Gary Nicholson, Jim Lauderdale, Tony Arata, Matraca Berg -- for another series of songs that acknowledged the country tradition of twang, yet kept to a sharp beat, and that maintained the female country sensibility of faithful loving, while avoiding victimization. "You Can Feel Bad," the album's first single and a number one hit, was a breakup song with a twist or two, while the second single, "A Thousand Times a Day," treated love as a 12-step addiction, and "I Miss Who I Was (With You)," caught a sense of regret tempered with acceptance. Some of the writing was a bit abstract, notably the title track, and there didn't seem much reason to cover Richard Thompson's up-tempo, Cajun-flavored "Tear-Stained Letter," which Jo-El Sonnier took into the Top Ten in 1988 (except, of course, that it's a great song). But Trouble with the Truth was a consistent collection that consolidated Loveless' prominent place in the country music scene of the mid-'90s. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Patty Loveless expanded on the success of her comeback album, Only What I Feel, on its successor, When Fallen Angels Fly, which made the country Top Ten, went gold, spawned four Top Ten singles, and was named the Country Music Association's Album of the Year. Songs like the feisty hit "Halfway Down" had a bouncy rockabilly feel, and Loveless rode the rhythms well, while on the ballad "Here I Am," another hit, she sounded like a country Stevie Nicks. And then there was "I Try To Think About Elvis," a comic rocker that was one of the best pieces of material to turn up in Nashville that year, and that Loveless performed with just enough tongue in her cheek. Of course, there were a couple of those hopelessly hokey Gretchen Peters ballads, but even one of those, "You Don't Even Know Who I Am," was a hit. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
