Below is an article from a student newspaper on Patty’s performance at Lincoln Center.

The Knights News

Country Music Vocalist Patty Loveless Performs

At Lincoln Center

Markos Papadatos

February 20, 2009

On Thursday, January 15, 2009, as part of the coveted American Songbook Series, Grammy Award-winning country music sensation Patty Loveless took the stage at the Allen Room of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The Allen Room is an exquisite venue with a large glass wall behind the stage offering a spectacular view of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. This event was made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.

Loveless’ opening song was “Blame It On Your Heart,” her biggest hit to date, which stayed three weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1993, for which she also received a huge welcome from a packed Allen Room crowd. She immediately continued with “On Down the Line,” the title track of her fourth studio album in 1990, written by Kostas, who also wrote Loveless’ first #1 song “Timber, I’m Falling In Love.”

After this song, Patty Loveless greeted the audience and mentioned that she loves playing in New York, a place where she has performed since 1989. After this brief introduction she broke into the third song of the evening, “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me,” a song in which she collaborated with George Jones, which was awarded the Country Music Association’s 1998 Vocal Event of the Year award. Playing in lieu of George Jones, was multitalented background vocalist and instrumentalist Garry Murray who lends his harmony on this tune. This song, along with “Halfway Down” was written by Grammy-winning bluegrass musician Jim Lauderdale who was a special guest among the audience at the performance.

When introducing “Lovin’ All Night,” Loveless mentioned that she was looking for material for her eighth studio album, On Your Way Home, and recalled singing “Lovin’ All Night” with Rodney Crowell while touring with him as part of the Down From the Mountain Tour. Loveless delivered a sassy rendition of the fun, up-tempo Crowell song.

After “Lovin’ All Night,” Loveless performed her first Top 10 hit, “If My Heart Had Windows,” a song that validated her in the country music industry in 1988 and earned her an induction in the prestigious Grand Ole Opry.

Loveless often remarks that she has been in the music business since 1987 and credits her brother, Roger Ramey, for helping her break out of her shell, since she was shy at the time; they moved together to Nashville in 1971. Loveless likes to joke that “her brother could sell snow to the eskimos.”

MsoNormal”> Throughout the evening, Loveless performed three power ballads including “Nothin’ But the Wheel,” and the haunting “Here I Am,” where her harking alto shines on a song about heartache and sorrow; however, the highlight of the night was her controlled vocal performance of “You Don’t Even Who I Am,” where Loveless exposes the rawness of the work in the song’s poignant lyrics, while simultaneously tugging at the audience’s heartstrings. It is no wonder that Loveless was awarded the 1996 Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year awards thanks to the success of this tune.

Her set list included songs from her newest album, Sleepless Nights, for which she received a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Album. Ms. Loveless decided to record this album to pay tribute to the artists she grew up listening to. Several of these classics included three which were co-written by country music veteran George Jones, the uptempo country-rock tune “Why Baby Why,” “That’s All It Took” and the bittersweet ballad “Color of the Blues.” When introducing the title track to her latest album, Loveless noted that the song “Sleepless Nights” was written by the same songwriters – Felice and Boudleaux Bryant- who wrote many hit songs for the Everly Brothers including “Wake Up Little Susie.” Particularly impressive about Loveless’ live performance of the title track is that it is a juxtaposition of both the Everly Brothers original and the Emmylou Harris country version.

Before performing the Steve Earle song “My Old Friend the Blues,” Loveless spoke about how she met Steve Earle—an artist who was also on the same label with her at the time—in the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville in the late 1980s and mentioned how much she loved that song; her husband and producer, Emory Gordy Jr., told Patty that she had to “live the song before she could record it.” After touring for twenty years and spending lonesome nights in hotel rooms by herself, Loveless remarks that she has finally “earned the right to record it.” After her Dreaming My Dreams record came out in 2005, Loveless notes that she took a three year sabbatical from the road.

For the final two songs of the night, Loveless got the crowd clapping during the chorus of yet another #1 country hit of hers “You Can Feel Bad” and was impressed that the audience remembered their cue to say “come on Patty get it together,” while she was performing her fun, up-tempo song “I Try To Think About Elvis.”

After completing an 18-song set list, Loveless came back for her encore performance, which was a rendition of one of her favorites songs on Sleepless Nights, country legend Hank Williams’ classic “Cold, Cold Heart” with an acapella ending. Ironically, “Cold, Cold, Heart” is the closing song on the Sleepless Nights record and a very fitting song to conclude her remarkable debut at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Overall, Patty Loveless’ concert in Lincoln Center was fantastic. Loveless is a vocalist who embodies what traditional country music is all about. Her singing, band and stage presence made this event very memorable and nostalgic as she revitalized the classic country tunes she covered while paying her respect to the greats of country music. She made the New York audience feel as if they were in a small, intimate setting where her mellifluous voice did all the talking.

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