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Patty Loveless Biography
Always, Patty Loveless connects. Going heart to heart with her listeners, she sings their joys and sorrows. She connects to the ache or tenderness of each song’s lyrics and she takes the connection back – all the way to the soul of country music. Born and bred country, Patty lives that soul, and with Dreamin’ My Dreams she again makes it real. “That title reminds me of how I first felt when I came to Nashville,” Patty says, “I felt I was living my dreams.” With this remarkable album, the dream continues.
Patty’s music reflects the vital richness of an artist at the height of her powers. Gifted with an unfailing ear, Patty has built a 20-year career around exceptional songs – and these are some of her strongest yet. With writers from Steve Earle and Jim Lauderdale to Delaney Bramlett, Richard Thompson and Lee Roy Parnell and the winning team of Patty and her husband and musical soul mate Emory Gordy, Jr., it’s no surprise that this album glistens.
Sony Nashville President and staunch supporter of Patty’s musical artistry, John Grady attests, “In all of the time I've worked in Nashville, the two people who have consistently made the best records in town are Patty Loveless and Emory Gordy, Jr.,”
“Keep Your Distance” opens the record on an energized note, “Same Kind of Crazy” rocks steady, and sweet melodies like “Never Ending Song of Love” and the title track aim unerringly heartward. There’s wit and good time spirit here and there’s warmth and wisdom and beauty too. “My Old Friend the Blues” evokes the essence of “lonesome,” and “When I Reach the Place I’m Going” is sheer gospel soul.
“This is the most beautiful, poignant, pure country record that I have heard in a long long time, says Sony’s John Grady. “I absolutely adore this record; all of it. I could not be more proud of a piece of music. Thank God it is on Sony Nashville.”
The beauty Patty achieves in her recordings is a natural kind, nothing contrived or forced. “I feel much more confident these days in the way I approach a song,” says Loveless. “On my last few records, I’ve just let myself feel a sense of freedom and trust. I’ve made a lot of records and I feel fortunate to be able to continue making them. So now I think, ‘I just want to flow with it. Enjoy it.’” On Dreamin’ My Dreams, the joy is infectious. With a crew of the industry’s finest musicians and Emory Gordy, Jr. and Justin Niebank at the production helm, Patty “flows with it” on a stellar successor to 2003’s On My Way Home and her finest work, from When Fallen Angels Fly to the groundbreaking Mountain Soul.
Patty’s dreams began in childhood. In Pikeville, Kentucky and then nearby Elkhorn City, she grew up into music. A good screenplay writer seeking a subject would relish Patty’s story, for here is the stuff of legend - a down-home girl finding her American dream. From a coal-mining family to the Opry, Patty persevered. Strumming the guitar her dad had given her when she was 11 years old, she followed destiny to the country music capitol. MCA/Nashville signed her, and in 1987, her self-titled debut marked her as a new traditionalist with decidedly contemporary appeal. Her pedigree was impressive: singing with the Wilburn Brothers at 16, befriending Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton at an age when most of her peers were tackling high school algebra. Patty’s five MCA albums poised her toward breakout success. And then the Top Ten hits, a phenomenal run of 14, really started happening.
The country music jukebox wouldn’t be the same without “Blame It on Your Heart,” “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?,” “Here I Am,” “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am,” “Halfway Down” and “You Can Feel Bad.” And the industry applauded the increasingly shining star, the CMA honoring its “Female Vocalist of the Year” with “Album of the Year” for When Fallen Angels Fly, and the ACM recognizing the singer as “Female Vocalist of the Year” for two years in succession. Albums like Trouble with the Truth and Long Stretch of Lonesome solidified her gains – eventually, from Tuscaloosa to Tucson, you simply couldn’t drive without at some time hearing fresh or vintage Patty Loveless on the car radio.
“Vintage” might be a key word for Patty. For even as her career soared, she’d never lost her respect or fondness for the classic country that had formed her – and the bluegrass and mountain music that laid the foundation for the house of country. Hence, it wasn’t really that much of a surprise that she released Mountain Soul in 2001. Not a surprise for Patty, that is. But for many listeners, the album was a revelation, a return to undiluted country, the clearest water from the well. Critics loved it, so did Patty’s longtime family of fans, and younger listeners, newly hip – by way of Oh, Brother, Wherefore Art Thou? – to old gold, were instantly converted. Here was a master, showing us the way it’s really done.
Dreamin’ My Dreams, in a way, is Mountain Soul-meets-tomorrow. It’s Patty honoring the legacy but also looking forward. And it’s another testimony to “the Loveless Code”: an unshakeable faith in the power of music itself. “You know,” Patty says, “music can be almost anything. It gives a lot of people encouragement, it’s great therapy, it’s a form of freedom-of-speech, and it allows people to relate to others and say, ‘Wow. I’m not the only one who feels that way.” Once again, it’s Patty making connections, bonds that she and her fans share. “I’ve had people come up and try to talk to me and start crying,” Patty remembers. “And I relate. I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to meet someone whose music has touched you. And it’s amazing that music has that power – when people tell me that my songs have helped them get through a bad marriage, or help out a loved one over in Iraq. Just the music and the voice, it’s amazing that they can do that.”
On Dreamin’ My Dreams, that amazing voice continues to tell our story. And as the mandolins cascade and the electric six-strings burn, you find that you just can’t shake these songs. They’ve gotten deep inside you.
They’re an intimate gift, really. A gift of a singer who’s been there – and will continue. Patty puts it simply, from the heart: “If I can just be a little part of touching lives through music, that’s wonderful. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Just like the people who touched my life.”
Patty’s music reflects the vital richness of an artist at the height of her powers. Gifted with an unfailing ear, Patty has built a 20-year career around exceptional songs – and these are some of her strongest yet. With writers from Steve Earle and Jim Lauderdale to Delaney Bramlett, Richard Thompson and Lee Roy Parnell and the winning team of Patty and her husband and musical soul mate Emory Gordy, Jr., it’s no surprise that this album glistens.
Sony Nashville President and staunch supporter of Patty’s musical artistry, John Grady attests, “In all of the time I've worked in Nashville, the two people who have consistently made the best records in town are Patty Loveless and Emory Gordy, Jr.,”
“Keep Your Distance” opens the record on an energized note, “Same Kind of Crazy” rocks steady, and sweet melodies like “Never Ending Song of Love” and the title track aim unerringly heartward. There’s wit and good time spirit here and there’s warmth and wisdom and beauty too. “My Old Friend the Blues” evokes the essence of “lonesome,” and “When I Reach the Place I’m Going” is sheer gospel soul.
“This is the most beautiful, poignant, pure country record that I have heard in a long long time, says Sony’s John Grady. “I absolutely adore this record; all of it. I could not be more proud of a piece of music. Thank God it is on Sony Nashville.”
The beauty Patty achieves in her recordings is a natural kind, nothing contrived or forced. “I feel much more confident these days in the way I approach a song,” says Loveless. “On my last few records, I’ve just let myself feel a sense of freedom and trust. I’ve made a lot of records and I feel fortunate to be able to continue making them. So now I think, ‘I just want to flow with it. Enjoy it.’” On Dreamin’ My Dreams, the joy is infectious. With a crew of the industry’s finest musicians and Emory Gordy, Jr. and Justin Niebank at the production helm, Patty “flows with it” on a stellar successor to 2003’s On My Way Home and her finest work, from When Fallen Angels Fly to the groundbreaking Mountain Soul.
Patty’s dreams began in childhood. In Pikeville, Kentucky and then nearby Elkhorn City, she grew up into music. A good screenplay writer seeking a subject would relish Patty’s story, for here is the stuff of legend - a down-home girl finding her American dream. From a coal-mining family to the Opry, Patty persevered. Strumming the guitar her dad had given her when she was 11 years old, she followed destiny to the country music capitol. MCA/Nashville signed her, and in 1987, her self-titled debut marked her as a new traditionalist with decidedly contemporary appeal. Her pedigree was impressive: singing with the Wilburn Brothers at 16, befriending Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton at an age when most of her peers were tackling high school algebra. Patty’s five MCA albums poised her toward breakout success. And then the Top Ten hits, a phenomenal run of 14, really started happening.
The country music jukebox wouldn’t be the same without “Blame It on Your Heart,” “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?,” “Here I Am,” “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am,” “Halfway Down” and “You Can Feel Bad.” And the industry applauded the increasingly shining star, the CMA honoring its “Female Vocalist of the Year” with “Album of the Year” for When Fallen Angels Fly, and the ACM recognizing the singer as “Female Vocalist of the Year” for two years in succession. Albums like Trouble with the Truth and Long Stretch of Lonesome solidified her gains – eventually, from Tuscaloosa to Tucson, you simply couldn’t drive without at some time hearing fresh or vintage Patty Loveless on the car radio.
“Vintage” might be a key word for Patty. For even as her career soared, she’d never lost her respect or fondness for the classic country that had formed her – and the bluegrass and mountain music that laid the foundation for the house of country. Hence, it wasn’t really that much of a surprise that she released Mountain Soul in 2001. Not a surprise for Patty, that is. But for many listeners, the album was a revelation, a return to undiluted country, the clearest water from the well. Critics loved it, so did Patty’s longtime family of fans, and younger listeners, newly hip – by way of Oh, Brother, Wherefore Art Thou? – to old gold, were instantly converted. Here was a master, showing us the way it’s really done.
Dreamin’ My Dreams, in a way, is Mountain Soul-meets-tomorrow. It’s Patty honoring the legacy but also looking forward. And it’s another testimony to “the Loveless Code”: an unshakeable faith in the power of music itself. “You know,” Patty says, “music can be almost anything. It gives a lot of people encouragement, it’s great therapy, it’s a form of freedom-of-speech, and it allows people to relate to others and say, ‘Wow. I’m not the only one who feels that way.” Once again, it’s Patty making connections, bonds that she and her fans share. “I’ve had people come up and try to talk to me and start crying,” Patty remembers. “And I relate. I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to meet someone whose music has touched you. And it’s amazing that music has that power – when people tell me that my songs have helped them get through a bad marriage, or help out a loved one over in Iraq. Just the music and the voice, it’s amazing that they can do that.”
On Dreamin’ My Dreams, that amazing voice continues to tell our story. And as the mandolins cascade and the electric six-strings burn, you find that you just can’t shake these songs. They’ve gotten deep inside you.
They’re an intimate gift, really. A gift of a singer who’s been there – and will continue. Patty puts it simply, from the heart: “If I can just be a little part of touching lives through music, that’s wonderful. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Just like the people who touched my life.”
Patty Loveless All Music Guide Biography
One of the most popular female singers of the new traditionalist movement, Patty Loveless rose to stardom thanks to her blend of honky tonk and country-rock, not to mention a plaintive, emotional ballad style. Her late-'80s records for MCA were generally quite popular, earning her comparisons to Patsy Cline, but most critics agreed that she truly came into her own as an artist when she moved to Epic in the early '90s.
Loveless was born Patricia Lee Ramey in Pikeville, KY, in 1957 and spent most of her childhood in nearby Elkhorn City, where her father worked in the coal mines. Her immediate family loved music, and two of her distant cousins later found fame as Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. Unfortunately, her father contracted black lung disease, forcing the family to move from their rural home to Louisville for the sake of convenient medical treatment. Patty found escape from the culture shock in music, and her father gave her a guitar when she was 11. Soon she was singing and writing songs with her older brother Roger, and the two started performing at local country jamborees. At one such show, the Wilburn Brothers caught their act and gave them a standing invitation to Nashville. Roger and a 14-year-old Patty made the trip on a weekend when the Wilburns were out of town, but managed to talk their way into Porter Wagoner's office instead, impressing him with a performance of Patty's original "Sounds of Loneliness."
Wagoner took Patty under his wing, inviting her to perform with him and Dolly Parton on the weekends. In 1973, after finishing high school, she became a featured vocalist with the Wilburn Brothers' band (a post once held by Loretta Lynn) and also signed with their publishing company. She later married the band's drummer, Terry Lovelace, and moved to his hometown near Charlotte, NC, in 1976. There she sang pop, rock, and R&B material with a local cover band for several years and endured bouts with alcoholism and drug use. In the early '80s, she returned home, hired her brother Roger as her manager, and altered the spelling of her married name to Loveless. After traveling to Nashville to record demos of country songs, she landed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose and moved to Nashville permanently in 1985; she also divorced Lovelace around the same time, and her demo tape impressed MCA exec Tony Brown enough that he offered her a contract later that year.
With Roger's producer friend Emory Gordy, Jr. at the controls, Loveless released her first chart single, "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights," and her self-titled debut album in 1986. She enjoyed some modest success, but didn't really make a splash until the 1988 follow-up, If My Heart Had Windows, which gave her two Top Ten hits in the title cut (originally recorded by George Jones) and Steve Earle's "A Little Bit of Love." Late in 1988, she released the follow-up album that made her a star, Honky Tonk Angel. "Timber, I'm Falling in Love" became her first number one hit in 1989, and three more singles -- "Blue Side of Town," "Don't Toss Us Away," and "The Lonely Side of Love" -- reached the Top Ten before year's end, by which time Loveless had married producer Gordy. In 1990, the album's fifth single, "Chains," became her second number one. Her next album, On Down the Line, came out later that year and brought her two Top Five hits in the title cut and "I'm That Kind of Girl." Following 1991's Up Against My Heart and its Top Five hit "Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way)," Loveless made some major changes in her career. She parted ways with her brother as manager and switched labels to Epic, taking husband Gordy with her as producer; moreover, she was forced to undergo throat surgery to repair her vocal cords before she was able to complete her label debut.
Only What I Feel was released in early 1993 and earned Loveless the best reviews of her career to date, thanks to a newfound level of confidence. The number one smash "Blame It on Your Heart" helped the record go platinum, and "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?" and "You Will" also went Top Ten. The following year's When Fallen Angels Fly won equal acclaim, not to mention the CMA's Album of the Year Award; it spun off four Top Ten hits in "I Try to Think About Elvis," "Halfway Down," "You Don't Even Know Who I Am," and "Here I Am." Released in 1996, The Trouble with the Truth continued Loveless' renaissance with two more number one smashes, "You Can Feel Bad (If It Makes You Feel Better)" and "Lonely Too Long," and the Top Five "She Drew a Broken Heart"; that year, she won the ACM's Female Vocalist of the Year Award. However, 1997's Long Stretch of Lonesome abruptly halted her commercial momentum; despite a similar level of consistency, none of its singles made the Top Ten. Perhaps a shift toward slick country-pop played a role in Loveless' sales slump, as 2000's solid Strong Heart met with a similar fate.
In response, Loveless turned away from hitmaking and embraced the acoustic Kentucky bluegrass of her youth, which was enjoying a renaissance of its own thanks to O Brother, Where Art Thou? The result, Mountain Soul, was released in 2001 and earned numerous critical plaudits, also selling decently in spite of its lack of concern for commercialism. Loveless kept that acoustic approach for her 2002 holiday album Bluegrass and White Snow: A Mountain Christmas, and it also informed her proper follow-up, 2003's On Your Way Home. The ambitious Dreamin' My Dreams appeared two years later, followed by Sleepless Nights in 2008. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Loveless was born Patricia Lee Ramey in Pikeville, KY, in 1957 and spent most of her childhood in nearby Elkhorn City, where her father worked in the coal mines. Her immediate family loved music, and two of her distant cousins later found fame as Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. Unfortunately, her father contracted black lung disease, forcing the family to move from their rural home to Louisville for the sake of convenient medical treatment. Patty found escape from the culture shock in music, and her father gave her a guitar when she was 11. Soon she was singing and writing songs with her older brother Roger, and the two started performing at local country jamborees. At one such show, the Wilburn Brothers caught their act and gave them a standing invitation to Nashville. Roger and a 14-year-old Patty made the trip on a weekend when the Wilburns were out of town, but managed to talk their way into Porter Wagoner's office instead, impressing him with a performance of Patty's original "Sounds of Loneliness."
Wagoner took Patty under his wing, inviting her to perform with him and Dolly Parton on the weekends. In 1973, after finishing high school, she became a featured vocalist with the Wilburn Brothers' band (a post once held by Loretta Lynn) and also signed with their publishing company. She later married the band's drummer, Terry Lovelace, and moved to his hometown near Charlotte, NC, in 1976. There she sang pop, rock, and R&B material with a local cover band for several years and endured bouts with alcoholism and drug use. In the early '80s, she returned home, hired her brother Roger as her manager, and altered the spelling of her married name to Loveless. After traveling to Nashville to record demos of country songs, she landed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose and moved to Nashville permanently in 1985; she also divorced Lovelace around the same time, and her demo tape impressed MCA exec Tony Brown enough that he offered her a contract later that year.
With Roger's producer friend Emory Gordy, Jr. at the controls, Loveless released her first chart single, "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights," and her self-titled debut album in 1986. She enjoyed some modest success, but didn't really make a splash until the 1988 follow-up, If My Heart Had Windows, which gave her two Top Ten hits in the title cut (originally recorded by George Jones) and Steve Earle's "A Little Bit of Love." Late in 1988, she released the follow-up album that made her a star, Honky Tonk Angel. "Timber, I'm Falling in Love" became her first number one hit in 1989, and three more singles -- "Blue Side of Town," "Don't Toss Us Away," and "The Lonely Side of Love" -- reached the Top Ten before year's end, by which time Loveless had married producer Gordy. In 1990, the album's fifth single, "Chains," became her second number one. Her next album, On Down the Line, came out later that year and brought her two Top Five hits in the title cut and "I'm That Kind of Girl." Following 1991's Up Against My Heart and its Top Five hit "Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way)," Loveless made some major changes in her career. She parted ways with her brother as manager and switched labels to Epic, taking husband Gordy with her as producer; moreover, she was forced to undergo throat surgery to repair her vocal cords before she was able to complete her label debut.
Only What I Feel was released in early 1993 and earned Loveless the best reviews of her career to date, thanks to a newfound level of confidence. The number one smash "Blame It on Your Heart" helped the record go platinum, and "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?" and "You Will" also went Top Ten. The following year's When Fallen Angels Fly won equal acclaim, not to mention the CMA's Album of the Year Award; it spun off four Top Ten hits in "I Try to Think About Elvis," "Halfway Down," "You Don't Even Know Who I Am," and "Here I Am." Released in 1996, The Trouble with the Truth continued Loveless' renaissance with two more number one smashes, "You Can Feel Bad (If It Makes You Feel Better)" and "Lonely Too Long," and the Top Five "She Drew a Broken Heart"; that year, she won the ACM's Female Vocalist of the Year Award. However, 1997's Long Stretch of Lonesome abruptly halted her commercial momentum; despite a similar level of consistency, none of its singles made the Top Ten. Perhaps a shift toward slick country-pop played a role in Loveless' sales slump, as 2000's solid Strong Heart met with a similar fate.
In response, Loveless turned away from hitmaking and embraced the acoustic Kentucky bluegrass of her youth, which was enjoying a renaissance of its own thanks to O Brother, Where Art Thou? The result, Mountain Soul, was released in 2001 and earned numerous critical plaudits, also selling decently in spite of its lack of concern for commercialism. Loveless kept that acoustic approach for her 2002 holiday album Bluegrass and White Snow: A Mountain Christmas, and it also informed her proper follow-up, 2003's On Your Way Home. The ambitious Dreamin' My Dreams appeared two years later, followed by Sleepless Nights in 2008. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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