“Mountain Soul 2” – Patty Loveless – A Review
Patty Loveless picks up where she left off with the first Mountain Soul CD. The high lonesome sound of harmonies and old time acoustic instruments. With the help of Nashville’s finest “A” call studio artists like Del and Ronnie McCoury, Bryan Sutton, her husband on bass, Emory Gordy Jr, (also ; Producer), Rob Ickes, Al Perkins; Loveless sings a set of timeless songs with a real live feel and a heart full of emotion.
“Busted” (Harlan Howard) is the opener, an upbeat song about getting the axe, she sings with a joyful heart.
“Half Over You” (Karen Staley) is a classic slow heart breaker, “No place is so lonely as bein’ half over you”. This is a killer some great steel by Al Perkins.
“Prisoner’s Tears” (Henderson,Irwin, Wilson) – Another heart melter about being in jail with analogies of other types of sentences. More hot steel by Al Perkins and Dobro by Ickes, love the thumpin’ bass by Mike Bab. What a great melody and bunch of hooks this song has.
This music gets in you, Loveless seems a lot happier in her delivery on this CD than in some time. “Working On A Building” (tra, gospel) Great acoustic song with help by the McCourys on vocals. More strong mountain soul.
“Friends In Gloryland”, accapello, with Vince Gill and Rebecca Lynn Howard.
“Children Of Abraham” (Loveless, Gordy) accapello, with the Baptist Hickory Primitive Baptist Congregation. Great lyrics on this song.
“Big Chance” is an acoustic country song that has some awesome pickin’ and just takes off into another world, very bluegrassy, uptempo, with some rippin’ fiddle performed by Stuart Duncan and Deanie Richardson on twin fiddle.
OK, one more, “When The Last Curtain Falls” (Gordy, Rushing) This is a slow heartbreak song with some of the best harmonies and dobro here.
Loveless’s vocals sound fresher than the mountain rain. This is one of the best recordings she has done, a total of fifteen songs. I can not think of a lady who can sing Mountain soul better than this is, I mean, we have the whole package of great vocal harmonies, great material and some of the best pickin’ and fiddlin that you will ever hear. Loveless is in a real groove on this album and the recording is just plain delightful.
Release 9/29/09
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