Sleepless Nights is subtitled The Traditional Country Soul Of Patty Loveless. I like that, partly because it is so matter-of-fact in its assumption that describing “country soul” as “traditional” isn’t an oxymoron. Mostly, though, the description is so apt because it places Loveless’ artistic strengths front-and-center namely, her soul, in both the melismatic vocal and well-deep emotion senses of the word, and in her willingness to “merely” work within a tradition in the first place. Loveless is to country music today what Mary J. Blige is to R&B: considerably older and seemingly quite a bit wiser than most of her competition, a torch carrier for tradition who sounds completely in the here and now, and simply her genre’s best vocalist in a generation.
One way to keep any musical tradition alive is through the persistent cultivation of a common repertoire; all fourteen songs on Sleepless Nights are covers. Many of Loveless’ selections are well-known but are renewed by fresh interpretation: Her “Crazy Arms” is slowed down and dripping with teary pedal steel; her “Cold, Cold Heart” is even slower, a shuffle fit for a funeral. But several of her picks will be less familiar, particularly to younger fans. “The Pain Of Loving You”, for instance, was a 1971 album track for Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton, and the heart-swelling title track, with high harmonies courtesy of Vince Gill, was first cut by the Every Brothers.
The savviest pick, though, might be “Next In Line”, originally a 1968 country chart-topper for Conway Twitty, a singer who had his own brand of traditional county soul. “See him there at the table, watch him tear at the label of the bottle he just drank dry,” Loveless observes of the man she loves but whose heart has been broken by another and her own heart sounds as if it’s breaking at the sight.
