Patty Loveless - Sleepless Nights
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Free Music Notes for Sleepless Nights
Free Music Review: Back where it all began
Hit: 5 Stars
This new album by Patty Loveless follows the road she has been on since "Mountain Soul", finding new mixes on the traditional mountain side of Patty's life. She had planned to do a CD for her older sister Dot and this was it. Her sister, she always considered to be a better singer and always kept her close by, then a few years back, she died. Her and Emory went thru 500 songs to get down to the 14 on the disc. On the road, she changed labels too, going with Saguaro Road Records. This is an interesting label, interested in rootsy singers, attracting the likes of Rebecca Lynn Howard and Joan Osborne, besides Patty.
Emory produced the disc, and went with half old school studio musicians and half contemporary types like Biff watson, Al Perkins, and Vince Gill on background vocals.
As for Old school ,there is Pig Robbins, Pete Finnie, Harold Bradley and Jedd Hughes. The result is what is called "traditional country soul", the records sub title.
"Sleepless Nights"(Bryant/Bryant) An awesome sweet ballad with Vince Gill, the title track. There is some really pretty pedal steel here.
"Crazy Arms"(Mooney/Seals) I love this song, heard Linda Ronstadt do a very similar version of it in '73. This is a timeless song.
"Color of the Blues" (Jones/Williams) has guitarist Guthrie Trapp ,a member of her road band for two years answering her vocals with some sweet understated blues guitar, great track. Patty sounds rejuvenated after going thru some trials of family deaths over the last couple of years.
"Cold, Cold Heart" (Hank Williams) Well, Patty closes this record up with a real classic and she is singing full of emotion with nothing to prove. That is a real comfort level.
Overall, this a gal that probably will not get a lot of radio play for these very well sung picks of songs that she loved when she was growing up, but we get to look a little deeper into the gal who helped make country music what it is today.
Free Music Review: Loveless' Memorable "Nights"
Hit: 5 Stars
Prime Cuts: The Pain of Loving You, Why Baby Why, Sleepless Nights
To tackle the classic songs of country music's copious canon is a parlous exercise. In lesser hands, such a venture could misfire. Loveless, on the other hand, succeeds in bringing these sonic pillars of country music back to life with her creative yet reverent interpretations. After a list of 500 songs, Loveless and hubby cum producer Emory Gordy Jr. have narrowed down to these 14 lucky entries. And they certainly cover the whole gamut from the oft-covered Ray Price's "Crazy Arms," Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass," and George Jones' "Why Baby Why" to the more obscure Osborne Brothers' "The Pain of Loving" and Gram Parsons' "That's All It Took." Most gorgeous though is that Gordy Jr. has allowed Loveless to belt out these songs with an Appalachian distilled immediacy with equal doses of controlled fury as well as passionate empathy. Never has Loveless sounded better.
The disc begins on an ominous note with the lead single "Why Baby Why." In keeping with most of Loveless' first single from each of her albums (think "Try to Think of Elvis" and "Lovin' All Night"), Loveless gives this love gone wrong George Jones classic a feminine sensibility augmented with attitude and verve. Fans of a traditional persuasion will indulge in another Jones' number "He Thinks I Still Care" where Loveless teases out heartbreak's entanglements with the right measures of mournful steel and fiddles. Another permutation of the broken heart is the Osborne Brothers' "Pain of Loving You," a track revived in the 80s by the trio (Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt). Of interest is that the accompanying Gospel-like harmonies on Loveless' rendition bears a striking similarity with that of the Trios'. To show that Loveless does not just slavishly adhere to the original renditions, she demonstrates her indomitable creativity by decelerating Ray Price's "Crazy Arms" to a more languid pace slowly lavishing in the euphoria of love's embrace.
Bringing her friends from high places Vince Gill's distinguished tenor adds a layer of lonesome to the plaintive title cut "Sleepless Night," a gorgeous old-fashioned sounding ballad. While former MCA artist Jedd Hughes helps Loveless clears the dust off the almost forgotten "That's All It Took" making it sparkle like it's a newly written gem. A listen to "Color of the Blues" reveals why some of these classics are so endearing. No one today writes with such poetic acumen as on this George Jones standard: "Up above me are the skies like the twinkle in your eyes/These things are the colors of the blues/In the mail your letter came the ink and paper looked the same/
Blue must be the color of the blues." Most tantalizing is Loveless' tortured read of Hank Sr.'s "Cold Cold Heart," here Loveless demonstrates why she's still the mountain soul siren that few can resist.
Though it is a common venture for most established artist to record an album of classics, few can pass muster. Few can strike a balance, as Loveless can, to treat these chestnuts with reverence, yet bold enough to present them in a way as if they were the first to cut them. When Loveless sings of these stories of heartbreak, broken homes, cheating and love found, she sings them as if she were singing about her own life. Invested with personality, these paeans receive face-lifts that are undeniably fresh, engaging and heartfelt. Loveless has indeed made a classic album of these classics.
Free Music Review: Excellent - so nice to have her back!
Hit: 5 Stars
Patty - you really did it this time. This look (and listen) at timeless classics is first rate - the songs you picked are truly country classics that stand up well to the test of time, and your treatment of them is fantastic. Your voice sounds better than ever, and fits very well with these songs. Very nice job!