Disco de Patty Loveless: “Classics”

This 1999 collection is a good place to start if you are curious about Patty Loveless. The new songs (Can't Get Enough, My Kind of Woman My Kind of Man, I Just Wanna Be Loved By You) are nice but feel out of place amongst these classic songs. Patty Loveless was a country artist who struggled in the early part of her career to find an audience, which ultimately led to her leaving MCA Records in 1992. Signed with Epic, she began to work with husband Emory Gordy Jr. and the result was something to be seen! This collection covers her career from her ONLY WHAT I FEEL album in 1993 to 1997's LONG STRETCH OF LONESOME. I think the highlights here are the ballads "You Don't Even Know Who I Am", "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" and "Here I Am". These songs really touch your heart and tug at your heartstrings, just beautiful emotional songs. She sings about longing so well in "Lonely Too Long", which is another landmark ballad for her. She shows her fun side on songs like "Blame It On Your Heart", or "I Try To Think About Elvis". "You Can Feel Bad" is a great Matraca Berg song, a fun uptempo number. Overall a really strong collection, this is the place to start your Patty Loveless collection!

Patty Loveless has long been regarded as one of country music's most talented female singers and for a very good reason. She can pull off everything from bluegrass, traditional and contemporary with such ease. Her voice is rich in emotion and maturity and it's hard not to be drawn into what she sings. For almost two decades, Loveless has given country fans some of the biggest hits on the radio and this collection is ,in my opinion, the cream of the crop.

"Classics" is a greatest hits CD that boasts Patty's hits from 1993 to 1999. You get everything from up-beat ("Can't Get Enough") to heartbreaking ("How Can I Help You Say Goodbye") to the fun ("I Try To Think About Elvis"). There's also a couple of unforgettable duets on the CD: "You Don't Seem To Miss Me" with George Jones and "My Kind ff Woman, My Kind of Man" with Vince Gill. It's especially enjoyable to listen to Patty and Vince, who for years, have been backing each other up vocally (ie: "When I Call Your Name" and "Go Rest High On That Mountain"). "My Kind of Woman, My Kind of Man" is a perfect example of two talents who are able to blend their voices together into a musical masterpiece. It's the duet us Gill/Loveless fans having been waiting for.

My favorite tracks on the CD are: "You Can Feel Bad" (a kick butt song about making the most of a breakup), "Here I Am" (about alcohol abuse), "You Don't Even Know Who I Am" (about a couple on the verge of splitting), and "Nothin' But The Wheel" (another driving away from a bad relationship song...!). It seems to me that Patty is at her best when she's singing a good breaking up song. She brings such emotion to them.

I've been a fan of Patty's from the beginning, but I have to say that her best music has come from the past decade and it's nice to see them all packaged on one CD. I've noticed that since I bought "Classic" I don't have as many Patty CD's laying around! It's one of the most listened to CD's in my house.

If you're a Patty Loveless fan and you're looking for her most recent hits, "Classics" is for you!

Gennie Bailey-Rogers

Patty Loveless's Classics is a collection of nine radio hits and three new songs. I own all of Patty's four previous Epic releases, so I wondered if I should purchase her greatest hits collection. Know that I own it, I am definitely glad I bought it. The radio sensation "Can't Get Enough" is good and the duet with Vince Gill "My King of Woman, My Kind of Man" is also pleasing, but the real gem is the other previously unreleased song "I Just Wanna Be Loved By You". It reminds me again why Patty is one of the greatest voices in Nashville. A mature reality of the need for love, not glossy or overproduced like music often recorded for radio. I always thought I preferred Patty's unreleased album cuts over her radio singles, this collection proved me wrong. This encore of radio hits is so well arranged, I plan to buy another copy just to keep in my car. This album is definitely bound to become a classic in my personal collection. I highly recommend that you treat yourself to this album, you will not regret it.

Pop divas like Faith Hill, Martina McBride and Reba aren't fit to wipe Patty Loveless' shoes. Whether she's doing bluegrass or country like this Patty is the absolute best!!! She has never compromised to do what sells like a certain redhead in country music we all know. Patty is the real deal and this CD will give you a great example of why she is just that....real country!!

Arguably the finest female country artist of the 90's, Patty Loveless was one of the few artists during that decade that recorded anything that could be considered less than classic. Beginning with '91's sorely overlooked UP AGAINST MY HEART all the way through possibly her finest work,LONG STRETCH OF LONESOME, she set the standard for artists, male and female, with consistently superb work. Though this cd omits a few singles that should have been included, this is about as good a compilation as anything put out in country in the last decade. The hitch here is that those who have bought only this for the hits would do well to investigate all of her previous studio albums--there is no filler to be found anywhere, not something that can be said about alot of artists. This, though, is a strong start to getting acquainted with one of the all-time great vocalists in the genre.