CD Review: Patty Loveless "On Your Way Home" (Epic)

Patty Loveless "On Your Way Home" (Epic)

Having climbed back into the hills for 2001's brilliant "Mountain Soul," 
Loveless now brings her hillbilly roots back down the mountain to Nashville. 
Together with husband/producer Emory Gordy Jr., she deftly augments the 
fiddle, banjo and mandolin that dominated "Mountain Soul" with electric 
guitars, bass, and drums, providing a punchier backing for the classic 
country themes and tightly harmonized vocals.

As always, Loveless and Gordy select their material from the cream of 
today's country writers, including Rodney Crowell, Matraca Berg, Marty 
Stuart, Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller. Stuart's "Draggin' My Heart Around" 
kicks off the album with a two-steppin' tale of love gone wrong, a topic 
that's visited several times. A trio of waltzes, "Born Again Fool," "Higher 
Than the Wall" and "Last in a Long Lonesome Line," show off how Loveless can 
stretch a note to communicate the depth of loneliness or the first blush of 
love, the despair of resignation or the joy of re-discovery.

The album closes, as so many Loveless releases seem to, on a funereal note. 
This touching memory of a grandfather would sound treacly in the hands of a 
lesser singer, but Loveless renders it into a truly emotional moment. She 
sings with seemingly effortless confidence, reveling in the artistic freedom 
-- the trust -- given her by Epic. She exhibits the confluence of talent, 
maturity, dedication, and intelligence that marks the peaks of Wells, 
Parton, Lynn, and country's other great singers.

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