Randogs Daily Pick Jan.31-14 Patty Loveless-Mountain Soul- Epic CD- 85651 Released in the summer of 2001, this was one of the first--if not THE first--Music Row acknowledgments that, because of the success of the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, bluegrass might be something to look into in a serious way--and it remains the best of those attempts to cash in, IMHO. Patty Loveless was the ideal artist, since she was at that point probably the female artist best equipped vocally to the task of interpreting bluegrass material. She was, in fact, at that point, the best traditional country singer active in the classic tradition that was still fully in control of her vocal abilities in Nashville in 2001. From eastern Kentucky, shes always had an affinity for traditional sounds, and possesses an emotional, hard charging vocal style that fit the songs here perfectly. Produced by her husband Barry Gordy, whose background in bluegrass as a player(Here Today) and producer (Bill Monroe) stood him in good stead. The backing musicians here include Deanie Richardson and Carmella Ramsey, both in Pattys band at the time, the late Tim Hensley, a veteran of both Patty and Kenny Chesneys bands and an astonishingly talented multi-instrumentalist and singer(he died last spring, only 50 years old--a tragic passing), plus her husband and producer and many members of the Nashville bluegrass community, including the late Gene Wooten and rob Ickes on dobro, tater Tate and Stuart Duncan on fiddle,Ricky Skaggs, Alan OBryant, Jeff White, and John Randall, who duets with Patty on just Someone I Used To know and provides guitar on other tracks. The songs are a mix of originals penned by Nashville writers and traditional fare (Shady Grove is called Pretty Little Miss, Man of Constant Sorrow is recast as Soul Of Constant Sorrow--but its the same song) including Two Coats, I Know Youre Married But I Love You Still, and Don Humphries The Boys Are Back In Town--with additional, cleaned up lyrics by Pat Enright and Stuart Duncan...perhaps ,sadly the Grandma on her ass reference is gone...there is a quite effective duet with Travis Tritt on I Know Youre Married...and to my ear, the most soulful and effective recording to date of Darrell Scotts masterpiece Youll Never Leave Harlan Alive, with the possible exception of his own. A wonderful album indeed.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:35:26 +0000
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