PATTY LOVELESS, VOICE OF NEOTRADITIONAL COUNTRY

Today, The Grandma has been listening to some country music. She has chosen Patty Loveless, the American country music singer, who was born on a day like today in 1957.

Patty Loveless (born Patricia Lee Ramey, January 4, 1957) is an American country music singer.

She began performing in her teenaged years before signing her first recording contract with MCA Records' Nashville division in 1985. 

While her first few releases were unsuccessful, she broke through by decade's end with a cover of George Jones's If My Heart Had Windows.

Loveless issued five albums on MCA before moving to Epic Records in 1993, where she released nine more albums. Four of her albums -Honky Tonk Angel, Only What I Feel, When Fallen Angels Fly, and The Trouble with the Truth- are certified platinum in the United States. 

Loveless has charted 44 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including five which reached number one: Timber, I'm Falling in Love, Chains, Blame It on Your Heart, You Can Feel Bad, and Lonely Too Long.

Loveless's music is defined by a mix of sounds, including neotraditional country, country pop, and bluegrass music, with her singing voice garnering favoUrable comparisons to Loretta Lynn and Emmylou Harris. Recurring songwriters whose work she has recorded include Matraca Berg, Kostas, Jim Lauderdale, and Steve Earle. She has collaborated with Vince Gill, George Jones, and Dwight Yoakam, among others.

Nearly all of her albums were produced by her husband, Emory Gordy Jr. Although she largely retired from performing in 2009, Loveless has sporadically contributed to other artists' works in subsequent years. She has won five awards from the Country Music Association, two from the Academy of Country Music, and two Grammy Awards.

Loveless was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 22, 2023.

More information: Instagram-Patty Loveless

Patty Loveless was born Patricia Lee Ramey on January 4, 1957, in Pikeville, Kentucky to Naomi (née Bowling; 1921-2006) and John Ramey (1921-1979). She is the sixth of seven children.

Through her patriline, Loveless is a distant cousin of country singers Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. She was raised in nearby Elkhorn City, Kentucky, where her father worked in a coal mine. He contracted black lung disease as a result of the job, forcing the family to move to Louisville, Kentucky, to facilitate his medical treatments. John Ramey died of the disease in 1979.

By the time she was 11, she began playing guitar and writing songs with her brother Roger, which led to the two of them performing together at local events.

Loveless spent much of the late 1970s playing rock cover songs at various venues in the Midwestern United States. By the mid-1980s, she moved back to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career as a country artist.

At the time, Loveless said she was inspired by the rise of neotraditional country in the mid-1980s through such acts as Dwight Yoakam, The Judds, and Randy Travis. In Nashville, she sang demo recordings for other artists and signed a songwriting contract with Acuff-Rose Music in 1985.

Loveless recorded five of her own songs on a demo tape, which her brother Roger sent to MCA Records' Nashville division. Tony Brown (a record producer who was also serving as that label's president of artists and repertoire) helped sign Loveless to the label in July 1985.

Although she largely retired from performing in 2009, Loveless has sporadically contributed to other artists' albums. She provided vocals to the track Dear Diamond on Miranda Lambert's 2010 album Four the Record. The same year, she joined with Danica Patrick, Caitlyn Jenner, and Michael Strahan in a program started by NASCAR titled Drive, which was done to raise awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Loveless chose to join the program as her sister Dottie had died of the disease. She also appeared on albums by Angaleena Presley, Elizabeth Cook, Trisha Yearwood, and Carly Pearce.

The editors of Country Music: The Encyclopedia describe Loveless as having a straight-from-the-heart, strong yet vulnerable vocal style, which they compared favorably to Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells.

The same entry noted that Loveless had commercial success with both upbeat songs and ballads, and stated that she may not be one of the more flashy personalities around; nevertheless, the songs she chooses to sing and the way she chooses to sing them are some of the best of what modern 'traditional' country music is all about."

More information: Patty Loveless

I look for songs that the listener,
when they hear it,
they believe what I'm singing about,
that I know what I'm singing about.
That's my whole deal.
I try to choose songs that a male or a female
can perform and relate to.

Patty Loveless