Patricia Lee Ramey (born January 4, 1957), better known as Patty Loveless, is a Country Music singer from Pikeville, Kentucky. After many years working as a singer, and a stint in the Wilburn Brothers' band, Loveless wound up in Nashville in the mid-1980s. Her first few albums on MCA Records were modest successes, building up to her first #1 hit "Timber, I'm Falling in Love" in 1989. While at MCA, she scored other big hits with "Chains", "On Down the Line", "I'm that Kind of Girl", and "Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way)" among others.
After a vocal cord surgery put her career on hiatus for most of 1992, she moved to Epic Records. Throughout her tenure with them, she continued to have huge hits with the likes of "I Try to Think About Elvis", "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye", "You Can Feel Bad", and "Lonely Too Long". Although the hit making largely dried up in the 21st century, she continued to record as late as 2009.
Loveless is known for her twangy bluegrass phrasings blended with traditionalist lyrics and 1990s country style production. All but two of her albums were produced or co-produced by longtime husband Emory Gordy Jr., who also contributed on bass. Many of her albums also feature contributions from Greek songwriter Kostas Lazarides, and harmonies from Vince Gill.
Albums:
- Patty Loveless (1987)
- If My Heart Had Windows (1988)
- Honky Tonk Angel (1988)
- On Down the Line (1990)
- Up Against My Heart (1991
- Only What I Feel (1993)
- Greatest Hits (1993)
- When Fallen Angels Fly (1994)
- The Trouble with the Truth (1996)
- Long Stretch of Lonesome (1997)
- Classics (1999)
- Strong Heart (2000)
- Mountain Soul (2001)
- Bluegrass & White Snow: A Mountain Christmas (2002)
- On Your Way Home (2003)
- Dreamin' My Dreams (2005)
- Sleepless Nights (2008)
- Mountain Soul II (2009)
Tropes present:
- Age-Progression Song: "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" follows the narrator as a child, then as a young adult divorcing her husband, then as a mature adult watching her mother die.
- Auto-Tune: The very first line of "Keep Your Distance" auto-tunes the line "If I cross your path again", but such production appears nowhere else in the song (or really, anywhere else in her discography).
- Christmas Songs: Bluegrass & White Snow: A Mountain Christmas. She also recorded a cover of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" on Alvin and the Chipmunks' A Very Merry Chipmunk album.
- Common Meter: "Chains" and "The Night's Too Long" are both common meter double.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Keep Your Distance" comes to a dead stop before picking up for one more repeat of the chorus.
- Green-Eyed Monster: "Jealous Bone" has the narrator expressing jealousy by being unable to handle the thought of the one she loves with anyone else.
- Lady in Red: Says in "I'm That Kind of Girl" that she's not quite this, but not a blushing maiden either.I ain't the woman in red, I ain't the girl next door
But if somewhere in the middle's what you're looking for, I'm that kind of girl - List Song: "I Try to Think About Elvis" is a random list of things that the narrator "tr[ies] to think about" when stuck on the thought of her lover.
- Love Hurts:
- Subverted with "Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way)". The protagonist was hurt by a previous lover, but admits that she would not be in her more comfortable current relationship if not for the failure of the previous one ("Would've never found you if he'd wanted to stay / Oh, he hurt me bad in a real good way").
- Also subverted in "You Can Feel Bad". The singer's boyfriend leaves her and apologizes for breaking her heart. She shrugs and tells him she's fine, but he can feel bad about breaking up with her if it eases his guilty conscience.
- New Sound Album: Mountain Soul and Mountain Soul II were straight-up bluegrass albums, while Sleepless Nights was a covers album.
- Record Producer: Her longtime husband Emory Gordy Jr. produced or co-produced all but two of her albums.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: "Lonely Too Long" is told from the mistress' POV, where she says the male in the relationship shouldn't feel bad for his one-night stand because both of them have been in boring relationships and just want to spice things up: "We ain't done nothin' wrong / We've both been lonely too long".
- Uncommon Time: The last line of "Blue Memories" is in 10/4.
- Wanderlust Song: "That's the Kind of Mood I'm In":I tell you what, we're in a rut, we're in a deep rut
So habitual, predictable, I tell you what we oughta do
We oughta drive away, fly away, find a way to get away
We need a break from the same old, same old nothin' new
Wanna go out on a limb on a whim, yeah
That's the kind of mood I'm in - Wham Line: "Here I Am" spends its first two verses taunting her ex, only to reveal in the last chorus that the narrator still carries a flame for him.
