Mountain Soul
Mountain Soul is the eleventh album of original recordings by Patty Loveless. The album was recorded between January and March 2001 and was released on June 26 in the United States. It first charted on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart on July 14 (peaking on July 28 at #19), and remaining on the charts for 87 weeks until March 8, 2003. Other country superstars also have done "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" such as Kathy Mattea and Brad Paisley. A follow up album, Mountain Soul II was released in September 2009.[8]
Mountain Soul | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 26, 2001 | |||
Recorded | Franklin, Tennessee | |||
Genre | Bluegrass | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Producer | Emory Gordy, Jr. | |||
Patty Loveless chronology | ||||
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Singles from Mountain Soul | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"The Boys Are Back in Town" on YouTube | ||||
Music video | ||||
"Out Of Control Raging Fire " on YouTube |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
About.com | (favorable)[1] |
Allmusic | |
Entertainment Weekly | A[3] |
Los Angeles Times | |
PopMatters | |
Rolling Stone | |
Spin | (9/10)[7] |
The album also charted on the main Top Billboard 200 chart, Top Bluegrass Album chart and the Top Internet Albums chart.[9]
Rhapsody ranked the album #9 on its "Country’s Best Albums of the Decade" list.[10]
Country Universe, ranked the album #10.[11]
Engine 145 country music blog list it #6 on the "Top Country Albums of the Decade" list.[12]
Track listing
- "The Boys Are Back in Town" (Don Humphries, Pat Enright, Stuart Duncan) – 2:34
- "The Richest Fool Alive" (Kostas, Bobby Boyd, Don Mealer) – 3:22
- "Daniel Prayed" (Ralph Stanley) – 2:45
- "Someone I Used to Know" (Jack Clement) – 2:17
- duet with Jon Randall
- "Out of Control Raging Fire" (Kostas, Melba Montgomery) – 3:33
- duet with Travis Tritt
- "Rise Up Lazarus" (Emory Gordy Jr., Patty Loveless) – 2:21
- "Cheap Whiskey" (Jim Rushing, Gordy Jr.) – 3:42
- "Pretty Little Miss" (Gordy Jr., Loveless) – 2:41
- "I Know You're Married (But I Love You Still)" (Don Reno, Mack MaGaha) – 2:54
- duet with Travis Tritt
- "Sorrowful Angels" (Leslie Satcher, Tommy Conners) – 3:58
- "Soul of Constant Sorrow" (Gordy Jr., Loveless) – 3:04
- "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" (Darrell Scott) – 6:06
- "Two Coats" (arr. Gordy Jr., Loveless) – 3:18
- "Sounds of Loneliness" (Loveless; credited to Patty Ramey) – 3:48
Personnel
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Chart performance
Chart (2001) | Peak position |
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U.S. Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums | 5 |
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums | 19 |
U.S. Billboard 200 | 159 |
Release notes
2001 found Loveless recording in the Bluegrass Roots genre after the less than successful experiment in Country pop on her 2000 release, Strong Heart.
According to Loveless, "...we went back (to Kentucky) to do the photo shoot for the album cover for this particular project in March (2001). It's sort of like a little 'extra' along with the album I have out right now, Strong Heart. The reason I did the record was the fact that during my shows last year, and down through the years, I've been slowly doing one or two songs on each album that sort of has the mountain sort of tone to it. I would say, sort of that feel like The Stanley Brothers, or that feel of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs... Bill Monroe, and that combination of the real, real hardcore country music. And I was doing it during my shows, about three, four songs. The people would come up and ask, 'where can we get this kind of music?... that song that you did?', and I would say like, 'I haven't recorded it yet..' So I said, well, this is something I want to do. And, for those folks that are going to be listening, or looking out for some of the more acoustic type of mountain blues, or mountain soul.. is what I'm calling it Mountain Soul.
My family didn't move from Pikeville until I was 10. I lived there for quite some time. I still have some family back in Pikeville, and we recently just went back and we shot a photo session for a new project I've been working on. It's kind of a little, sentimental-type project for me. It's very rootsy. A kind of a country-combination of mountain music from the Appalachians.
I had so much fun doing it. It was all cut live. It was cut here in Tennessee, at Lieper's Fork. And we had a BLAST! Ricky Skaggs came out and played mandolin and sang. Travis Tritt, he played guitar and sang. John Randall, you know he has a WONDERFUL voice and it's just great. We got to cut these wonderful old tunes and my husband and I wrote some songs for it and I was just thrilled to death to do it...."[13]
"Out of Control Raging Fire" was previously recorded as a duet by Tracy Byrd and Dawn Sears on Byrd's self-titled debut album in 1993. The album also featured covers of Reno and Smiley's "I Know You're Married", Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner's "Someone That I Used to Know", Melba Montgomery's "Raging Fire"; Darrell Scott's "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", and Martina McBride's "Cheap Whiskey".
"The Boys Are Back in Town", is a song that Loveless links her album to the traditional community dance, held in someone's home after the furniture and carpet had been picked up. In effect, the listener is invited into the living room.
"Two Coats", was previously available only on "The Apostle" soundtrack album. It was written originally by Ralph Stanley and was one of his gospel standards for years. A new arrangement for the song was written by her husband/producer, Emory Gordy, Jr.
"Sounds Of Lonlieness" is the only song Loveless recorded on two of her albums (it was the final cut on her 1987 self-titled Patty Loveless) album, and instead of using her professional name, Loveless for the songwriting credits, she used her maiden name, Patty Ramey. This was a tribute to her father, because as a 15-year-old girl, she wrote "Sounds Of Loneliness" for him.
The album contains rarely seen photographs of Loveless's father, a Kentucky coal miner who died of black lung disease, as well as stunning photos of the singer's Pikeville, Kentucky hometown.
References
- About.com review
- Allmusic review
- Entertainment Weekly review
- Los Angeles Times review
- PopMatters review
- "Rolling Stone review". Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. Retrieved 2013-04-16.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- Album reviews at CD Universe
- "PATTY LOVELESS TO RELEASE SEQUEL TO ACCLAIMED MOUNTAIN SOUL CD". Sanguaro Road. July 7, 2009. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
- Billboard.biz - Music Business - Billboard Charts - Album Sales - Concert Tours
- "Country’s Best Albums of the Decade" Archived 2010-01-19 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 12 January 2010.
- Retrieved 17 March 2010
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-10-24. Retrieved 2010-02-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Retrieved 10 February 2010.
- Interview Lovless gave to Dallas Taylor of Great American Country on her Country Music Live show March 30th, 2001