| For The Record... |
| Born Patty Lee Ramey on January 4, 1957, in Pikeville, KY; daughter of John (a coal miner) and Naomi Ramey; married Terry Lovelace (a drummer), 1976 (divorced c. 1987); married Emory Gordy, Jr. (a record producer), 1989. Country singer and songwriter, c. 1970- singer with brother Roger Ramey's country music band, c. 1970-72; secured song publishing contract, c. 1972; worked as "girl singer" in Wilburn Brothers road show, c. 1972-76; singer in night clubs in and near Charlotte, NC, c. 1976-85; moved to Nashville, TN, recorded demo tape with help of Roger Ramey, c. 1985; recorded with MCA, 1985-92; recorded with Sony Music, 1992-2005; recorded for Time Life/Saguaro Road Records, 2008-. Awards: Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, 1988; American Music Award, Favorite New Country Artist, 1989; TNN Music City News Country Award, Female Artist, 1990; Country Music Association Award, Album of the Year, for When Fallen Angels Fly, 1995; and Female Vocalist of the Year, 1996; Academy of Country Music Awards, Female Vocalist of the Year, 1996, 1997. Addresses: Record company—Time Life /Saguaro Rd. Records. Official Record company Web site: http://www.saguaroroadrecords.com. Management—Mike Robertson Management, P.O. Box 120073, Nashville, TN 37212. Booking—Paradigm Agency, Bobby Cudd, phone: 615-251-4400. Web site—Patty Loveless Official Web site: http://www.pattyloveless.com. |
Singer
Dubbed "The Heartbreak Kid" in the headline for an April 1997 article by TV Guide contributor Dan DeLuca, country singer Patty Loveless has certainly earned her title. Her ability to belt out the sentimental lyrics of her songs is rooted in her life experiences. Although too familiar with tragedy and misery, the singer-songwriter's hard-luck past has served her well. One of the country's most consistent hitmakers during the 1990s, her albums continue to win critical acclaim. Loveless, named the Academy of Country Music's female vocalist of the year for both 1996 and 1997, told DeLuca: "I think torch songs and heartache songs reach out to people and say, ‘Hey, this is life and we've got to live, learn from our mistakes, and continue.’ That's what I try to put into the songs. That's what I make music for."
Loveless was born on January 4, 1957, in the Appalachian mining town of Pikeville, Kentucky. Her father, John Ramey, was a coal miner who ultimately died in 1979 of the black lung disease that plagues many in his occupation, and her mother, Naomi Ramey, was a homemaker who struggled to care for Loveless and her siblings. Loveless began singing at the age of five, primarily to entertain her parents, but by the age of 12 she was singing in her brother Roger's band. Roger Ramey introduced his sister to country music stars Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner in 1971, and Wagoner agreed to sign the 14-year-old Loveless to a contract. Shortly thereafter, the young singer began working with the Wilburn Brothers' road show, replacing famous country singer Loretta Lynn, who, along with Lynn's baby sister Crystal Gayle, was Loveless's distant cousin.
Released Debut Album in 1985
It was while working with the road show that Loveless met Wilburn Brothers' drummer Terry Lovelace (pronounced "Love-less"). In 1976, despite the disapproval of her family and friends, she married Lovelace and moved to Kings Mountain, North Carolina. In an article by People contributor Steve Dougherty, Loveless said that her marriage at the age of 19 was, in part, a rebellion. "So many people had been making decisions for me for so long," she asserted, "I just wanted to feel a sense of freedom." Unfortunately, her marriage to Lovelace did not turn out as she had planned. Instead, she began abusing drugs and alcohol and singing cover versions of popular rock songs in Charlotte-area night clubs, in order to support the couple's expensive addictions and to make ends meet. Loveless ultimately overcame her substance abuse, and in 1985 she and Lovelace separated. After changing the spelling of her name to Loveless, she returned to Nashville to rekindle her career as a country singer.
With the help of brother Roger, Loveless recorded a demo tape and worked to sell it to record labels. While on her way to audition for executives at MCA Records, she met Emory Gordy, Jr.—at the time an MCA producer—who would later become her husband. In 1985 Loveless signed with MCA and soon began to receive positive reviews from music critics and industry insiders who predicted that she would one day be a country music superstar. Her vocal ability was applauded by critics after the release of her debut album, Patty Loveless, in 1985. She and Terry Lovelace were divorced in 1987, and in 1988 Loveless was honored as an inductee of the Grand Ole Opry. Loveless's first number one single came in 1989, with "Timber I'm Falling in Love"; that same year she and Gordy were married, and she took home an American Music Award for Favorite New Country Artist. Loveless became increasingly popular among country music fans; in 1990 she was awarded the Tennessee News Network (TNN) Music City News Country Award.
The praise continued for 1988's If My Heart Had Windows and Honky Tonk Angel. Although critics lauded her 1990 album On Down the Line—People's Ralph Novak declared that it represented "just plain quality country singing"—as well as 1991's Up Against My Heart, neither of the albums managed to reach the level of commercial success Loveless had attained with her previous works.
Won Multiple Awards
Between 1990 and 1993 Loveless suffered a series of professional and private setbacks. In 1992, in an attempt to revitalize her career, Loveless left MCA Records. In addition, she fired her brother as her manager, a move which caused a rift in their previously close relationship. Before she was able to begin recording fresh material with her new label, Epic, and her new producer, Emory Gordy, Loveless encountered another personal obstacle. During the fall of 1992 she began experiencing hoarseness, and learned that she had developed an aneurysm on her vocal cords. The situation was grave. In order to repair the aneurysm, Loveless had to undergo risky laser surgery, which also had the potential to damage her voice permanently. The surgery was performed on October 21, 1992. After remaining completely silent during November of 1992 and recuperating throughout that December, Loveless decided to try out her newly-repaired vocal cords and began recording her sixth album in January of 1993. Only What I Feel was an immediate success when it was released in the spring of 1993, and as Dougherty wrote, "It was clear that Loveless' luck had turned."
With the 1993 release of Only What I Feel, Loveless again joined the ranks of critically acclaimed and successful country music stars. Recorded after her encounter with laser surgery, the album was hailed by critics as irrefutable evidence that Loveless's voice had come through her ordeal intact. Billboard's Peter Cronin declared that on the album Loveless was "singing with more range, more control, more conviction than ever before, effectively combining powerful delivery with fragile emotion." Entertainment Weekly contributor Alanna Nash noted the "restored power and character shadings of Loveless' authentically rural voice," and People's Hal Espen called her "equal parts Linda Ronstadt and Pasty Cline," referring to her ability to combine elements of traditional country and rock music. The album quickly produced a number one hit with "Blame It on Your Heart," as well as the poignant single "How Do I Help You Say Goodbye." "Blame It on Your Heart," backed by the strength of the album on which it appeared, earned Loveless three CMA Award nominations for song, album, and female vocalist of the year.
Unfortunately, despite the promise with which 1993 had begun, Loveless was to suffer yet another personal challenge. In June of 1993 a tabloid article revealed that the singer had had an abortion in 1980. Previously, no one had known about the terminated pregnancy, and the singer was devastated to have her private misery made public. But in the aftermath of the story, Loveless was able to reconcile with her brother Roger, and she triumphed over her personal crises by producing emotionally powerful songs that touched the hearts of fans and music experts alike. Matraca Berg, a songwriter who had penned Loveless's 1990 hit single "That Kind of Girl," and would go on to write 1996's "You Can Feel Bad," later maintained in the DeLuca article that Loveless had "a lot of class and she's no puppy. She's lived, and she sings like she believes every word of it. And that's a rare gift."
Loveless followed up with her 1994 album When Fallen Angels Fly, which garnered both critical and popular success, and the single "You Don't Even Know Who I Am" earned Loveless Grammy Award nominations for best female country vocal performance and best country song. The music industry continued to bestow upon Loveless some of its highest honors, including making her the first woman ever to win a Country Music Association (CMA) Award for Best Album for Angels. At her commercial peak in 1996, Loveless was named Female Vocalist of the Year by both the CMA and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and in 1997 she repeated as the ACM's female vocalist and was nominated for the CMA's award as well.
"Things Will Work Out Anyway"
People contributor Craig Tomashoff asserted that The Trouble with the Truth (1996) "builds a bridge" between country, rock, and pop music. The album became a critical and popular success, earning Loveless a 1997 Grammy Award nomination for best country album. Tomashoff called Loveless's singing "warm and inviting," and Nash asserted that Loveless "uses her backwoods soprano—as rural and unassuming as a mountain brook—to best effect." Time critic Richard Corliss contended: "The way Loveless sings it, the truth ain't pretty, but it sounds as golden as the Gospel."
According to critics, Loveless's 1997 effort, Long Stretch of Lonesome, justified the high expectations that followed the singer's previous efforts. Jeremy Helligar, writing in Entertainment Weekly, observed that "Loveless' Appalachian blues sound torchy with hardly a hint of twang," and Tomashoff lauded the singer's "silky voice," concluding that "Loveless' words may tell you how tough life can be, but her voice lets you know that things will work out anyway." Interviewed by DeLuca while working on her ninth album, Loveless underlined her commitment to singing: "I like to keep focused on the work. I'm just looking for songs that stir emotions in me. Because if it moves me, then somebody else is going to be stirred in the same way."
Despite compiling remarkably consistent work, Loveless stopped hitting the Country Top Ten with her single releases after 1996. The genre began embracing sounds that were as much pop and rock as southern-fried country, and the Kentucky native's commercial clout ebbed away. Yet Epic's support remained constant, even when Loveless abandoned mainstream country for the more traditional bluegrass genre. Inspired by the mega-selling O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, Loveless crafted Mountain Soul, a masterwork of acoustic sounds that showed off her voice to great effect. She stayed in an acoustic setting for 2002's Bluegrass and White Snow: A Mountain Christmas, and on her 2003 release On Your Way Home. Although mainstream country radio had turned its back on traditional sounds, Loveless posted impressive sales on the country and pop charts.
Loveless's last stand with Sony/Epic came with the 2005 album Dreamin' My Dreams. An ambitious collection of tunes, the disc tackled rockabilly, rock and roll, country, bluegrass, and Americana with great skill. "The whole record was supposed to feel like you were … at a concert," she told Jeffery B. Remz at Country Standard Time. Although Dreamin' My Dreams eventually became a top ten country album, no major singles resulted and Sony/Epic did not renew her contract.
Still playing live dates and making occasional television appearances, Loveless resurfaced on the Time-Life / Saguaro Road label in 2008 with Sleepless Nights. Covering such country standards as George Jones's "Why Baby Why," Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass," and Hank Williams's "Cold Cold Heart," Loveless proved that even in middle age she was a potent interpreter of American roots music. "Loveless is a singer with staying power even if she does not churn out the radio hits like she used to," reviewed Country Standard Time. "What these 14 songs ably demonstrate is that Loveless fortunately stays true to her roots."
Selected discography
Patty Loveless, MCA, 1985; reissued, 1989.
If My Heart Had Windows, MCA, 1988.
Honky Tonk Angel, MCA, 1988.
On Down the Line, Universal Special priducts, 1990.
Up Against My Heart, MCA, 1991.
Greatest Hits, MCA, 1993.
Only What I Feel, Epic, 1993.
When Fallen Angels Fly, Epic, 1994.
The Trouble with the Truth, Epic, 1996.
Patty Loveless Sings Songs of Love, MCA, 1996.
(With others)Tin Cup (soundtrack), Epic, 1996.
Long Stretch of Lonesome, Epic, 1997.
Strong Heart, Epic, 2000.
Mountain Soul, Epic, 2002.
On Your Way Home, Epic, 2003.
Dreamin' My Dreams, Epic, 2005.
16 Biggest Hits, Epic / Legacy, 2007.
Sleepless Nights, Time Life / Saguaro Road, 2008.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, April 17, 1993, p. 7; April 16, 1994, p. 38; August 13, 1994, p. 1.
Entertainment Weekly, April 23, 1993, p. 56; August 26, 1994.
People, June 25, 1990, p. 23; May 3, 1993, p. 25; August 9, 1993, p. 85; September 5, 1994, p. 28; February 12, 1996, p. 27; November 3, 1997, p. 25.
Time, March 11, 1996, p. 71.
TV Guide, April 19, 1997, p. 42.
Online
"Patty Loveless," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (April 28, 2009).
"Patty Loveless," Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0522529/ (April 28, 2009).
"Patty Loveless Dreams On," Country Standard Time, http://www.countrystandardtime.com/d/print/article.asp?xid=575 (May 1, 2009).
Patty Loveless Official Web site, http://www.pattyloveless.com (April 15, 2009).
