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American country music singer (born 1957)

Loveless's music is defined by a mix of sounds, including neotraditional country, country pop, and bluegrass music, with her singing voice garnering favorable comparisons to Loretta Lynn and Emmylou Harris. Recurring songwriters whose work she has recorded include Matraca Berg, Kostas, Jim Lauderdale, and Steve Earle. She has collaborated with Vince Gill, George Jones, and Dwight Yoakam, among others. Nearly all of her albums were produced by her husband, Emory Gordy Jr. Although she largely retired from performing in 2009, Loveless has sporadically contributed to other artists' works in subsequent years. She has won five awards from the Country Music Association, two from the Academy of Country Music, and two Grammy Awards. Loveless was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 22, 2023.

Patty Loveless was born Patricia Lee Ramey on January 4, 1957, in Pikeville, Kentucky to Naomi (née Bowling; 1921–2006) and John Ramey (1921–1979). She is the sixth of seven children. Through her patriline, Loveless is a distant cousin of country singers Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. She was raised in nearby Elkhorn City, Kentucky, where her father worked in a coal mine. He contracted black lung disease as a result of the job, forcing the family to move to Louisville, Kentucky, to facilitate his medical treatments. In 1973 she married the band's drummer, Terry Lovelace, the same year and moved with him to Charlotte, North Carolina. At this point, she altered the spelling of her name to Patty Loveless, a variant of her married name. Loveless spent much of the late 1970s playing rock cover songs at various venues in the Midwestern United States. MCA Nashville released Loveless's debut single in late 1985 titled "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights". That album, the self titled Patty Loveless, was released in 1986. Contributing songwriters included Guy Clark, Jo El Sonnier, and Karen Staley. Loveless had written "I Did" at age 17 after undergoing a breakup, and it is the only single in her career that she wrote. An uncredited review in Cashbox of "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" called it "a boot tapper that shows off her strong voice and rhythmic phrasing." The same magazine published a favorable review of "I Did", which stated that the song "really does seem to come from the heart" and had a "classic sound". Jack Hurst of the Chicago Tribune was mixed toward the album, praising Loveless's voice, but criticizing the production as being more country pop in nature. Coinciding with the album's release, Loveless was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1988. Throughout 1988, Loveless also gained exposure in the United Kingdom by performing at an annual country music festival held at Wembley Arena. "The Lonely Side of Love" (another song written by Kostas) peaked in the country top ten by late 1989. Honky Tonk Angel was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of one million copies. Brian Mansfield described the album as "the album that established Loveless as a major presence". Wendy Dudley of the Calgary Herald praised Loveless's "robust vocals", comparing them favorably to those of Patsy Cline.

In 1990 Loveless released her fourth studio album, On Down the Line. which reached number 20. Hurst wrote that "Loveless's world class vocal power has seemed for three albums to be searching for material that could engage her soul, and she appears to have found it in this collection". Loveless ended her tenure on MCA with Up Against My Heart in 1991. Dolly Parton, Mac McAnally, and Vince Gill also sang on several album tracks. Follow up singles, "Jealous Bone" and "Can't Stop Myself from Loving You", were less successful on Billboard. In 1992, Loveless ended her contract with MCA and fired her brother Roger from his position as her manager. After its release, this compilation was certified gold. After recovery, she rebounded with what was considered a milestone record with her Epic Records debut, Only What I Feel (1993). Her first single for Epic was "Blame It on Your Heart", co written by Kostas and Harlan Howard. Actor Burton Collins came up with the concept of "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" after his grandmother's death in 1988, but did not finish the song until much later when he met co writer Karen Taylor Good. Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly thought that Loveless's vocals had become stronger after the surgery and that the songs had themes of "understanding between the sexes". Michael McCall of AllMusic also found Loveless's voice stronger than on her MCA work, highlighting her delivery on "Nothin' but the Wheel" in particular. At the 37th Grammy Awards in 1995, "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, her first nomination from that organization. She won Top Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music in both 1995 and 1996. Richard McVey wrote of "Here I Am" in Cashbox magazine that "She pours out emotions through her vocals like few can".

In 1996, Epic released her eighth studio album called The Trouble with the Truth. which stopped at number 13 on the charts. The Trouble with the Truth received Album of the Year nominations from both the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association. The same magazine published a review of "Lonely Too Long", stating that her voice "exudes a variety of emotion on this well written tune". Writing for Country Standard Time, Jeffrey B. Remz praised "Loveless's overwhelming ability to tackle the emotional core of each and every song." In late 1997, Loveless reached the top 20 of the country charts with the George Jones duet "You Don't Seem to Miss Me". Her next Epic release was a compilation titled Classics, issued in 1999. The album included nine singles from her previous Epic albums along with three new tracks. Two of these"Can't Get Enough" and the Vince Gill duet "My Kind of Woman/My Kind of Man" were issued as singles. "Pocket Full of Gold", and "Go Rest High on That Mountain". "My Kind of Woman/My Kind of Man" won both artists the Country Music Association award for Vocal Event of the Year. Classics was certified gold in 2002. One exception to this hiatus came in late 1999, when she provided backing vocals on Tim McGraw's number one single "Please Remember Me".

Loveless returned in 2000 with the studio project Strong Heart. Country Standard Time reviewer Eli Messinger was more mixed toward the project, considering it inferior to Long Stretch of Lonesome while noting the inclusion of Jimmy Hall and Travis Tritt on various tracks. She released a pair of bluegrass albums between 2001 and 2002. The first of these was Mountain Soul, which consisted of original content and cover songs. Loveless said she had wanted to do an acoustic bluegrass album since 1992 when she met Ralph Stanley. Epic Records executives agreed to let her release the project after noticing positive fan reactions whenever she sang bluegrass songs in concert. Another factor in this decision was the contemporary success of bluegrass influenced albums such as the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the works of Nickel Creek. The album included guest vocals from Earl Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs, along with covers of songs originally recorded by Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, and Darrell Scott. She also covered Gordy's composition "Cheap Whiskey", previously a single for Martina McBride in 1992. Messinger gave a positive review of the album for Country Standard Time, calling it "the most emotion drenched and uncompromisingly powerful album of her career." Mountain Soul received a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Bluegrass Album after release. This project was followed in 2002 by the Christmas bluegrass album Bluegrass & White Snow: A Mountain Christmas. It consisted mostly of traditional Christmas covers such as "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger". Jon Randall contributed to a rendition of "Joy to the World", and Carolyn Dawn Johnson on "The Little Drummer Boy". In addition to these songs, Gordy wrote the title track and two other original compositions. Loveless's next album was 2003's On Your Way Home. It became Loveless's last top 20 hit, while the title track and "I Wanna Believe" were her last chart entries altogether. AllMusic writer Thom Jurek also praised "The Grandpa That I Know" and Loveless's overall vocal tone, as well as the inclusion of Dobro and fiddle in the production. The album led to Loveless receiving Female Vocalist of the Year nominations from both the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association, The two also performed the song together at that year's Country Music Association awards ceremony. The 2005 release Dreamin' My Dreams was Loveless's last release for Epic before the label closed its Nashville branch. The project was co produced by Gordy and Justin Niebank. Contributing musicians included Lee Roy Parnell, Jon Randall, and Emmylou Harris. The album included four cover songs: Waylon Jennings's "Dreaming My Dreams with You", Richard Thompson's "Keep Your Distance", Steve Earle's "My Old Friend the Blues", and a duet with Dwight Yoakam on a cover of Delaney Bramlett's "Never Ending Song of Love". The cover of "Keep Your Distance" was the only single from the album. Brian Wahlert of Country Standard Time said of this album that Loveless and Gordy "have a knack for finding songs that express the joy and pain of everyday life in a way that anyone can relate to." He praised Loveless's vocal delivery on the song "On the Verge of Tears" in particular. Jack Bernhardt of The News and Observer considered the album her strongest release, noting the "storytelling intrigue" of the songs, while comparing Loveless's vocals favorably to those of Patsy Cline.

In 2006, Loveless appeared on rock singer Bob Seger's Face the Promise as a duet partner on the track "The Answer's in the Question". David N. Cole, Seger's audio engineer, had recommended Loveless as a duet partner because he thought the song should be recorded as a duet. Seger was initially unsure if Loveless would approve, but the two agreed after realizing they were fans of each other's music. She then took a hiatus from recording, due in part to Epic closing its Nashville branch. In addition, her mother and mother in law had both died and her brother Roger had suffered a stroke. Her next album release was Sleepless Nights on Saguaro Road Records in 2008. According to an interview with CMT, Loveless chose to do a covers album dedicated to both Roger and to her sister Dottie (who died in 1996). Jurek wrote of this album, "Loveless treats these songs without even a trace of nostalgia, but as the living embodiment of stories that not only transfer emotion, but reveal the hidden truths of love, life, sadness, grief, and wisdom gained by experience." In addition to this album, she sang duet vocals on the track "House of Cash" from George Strait's 2008 album Troubadour. At the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, Sleepless Nights was nominated for Best Country Album, while "House of Cash" was nominated for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Loveless chose to include Christian material on the project as she had previously sung "Amazing Grace" with Ralph Stanley and Emmylou Harris while on tour with them. Although she largely retired from performing in 2009, Loveless has sporadically contributed to other artists' albums. She provided vocals to the track "Dear Diamond" on Miranda Lambert's 2010 album Four the Record. The same year, she joined with Danica Patrick, Caitlyn Jenner, and Michael Strahan in a program started by NASCAR titled Drive, which was done to raise awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Loveless chose to join the program as her sister Dottie had died of the disease. She also appeared on albums by Angaleena Presley, Elizabeth Cook, Trisha Yearwood, and Carly Pearce. In October 2022, Loveless was one of several performers at Kentucky Rising, a benefit concert held at Rupp Arena to raise funds for victims of flooding in Kentucky. Other performers at the venue included Chris Stapleton, Dwight Yoakam, Ricky Skaggs, and Tyler Childers. A month later, Loveless and Stapleton performed "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" together at the 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards.

The editors of Country Music: The Encyclopedia describe Loveless as having a "straight from the heart, strong yet vulnerable vocal style", which they compared favorably to Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells. The same entry noted that Loveless had commercial success with both upbeat songs and ballads, and stated that she "may not be one of the more flashy personalities around; nevertheless, the songs she chooses to sing and the way she chooses to sing them are some of the best of what modern 'traditional' country music is all about." Nash also noted that Loveless had yet to win any industry awards at the time of the album's release, stating that "her lack of both flamboyance and any desire to play Nashville politics" may have been a factor. Geoffrey Himes of The Washington Post noted a recurring theme of "loss" and "heartache" in the lyrics of Loveless's songs. Nash described Gordy's production style as "lean but muscular". Loveless told The Los Angeles Times in 1995 that she looks for songs with "realism" in the lyrics. Carly Pearce has also cited Loveless as a career influence. The two collaborated on the song "Dear Miss Loretta" from Pearce's 2021 album 29: Written in Stone. Sara Evans, when discussing her plans to record a follow up to her 2020 album Copy That, stated that she wanted said follow up to have a more traditional country sound. In doing so, she also cited Loveless as one of her favorite artists, and said she wanted her upcoming album to sound like Loveless. Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe had previously compared Evans's voice to that of Loveless in a review of Evans's 1998 single "No Place That Far". In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Loveless at number 177 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. In April 2023, the Country Music Association announced that Loveless, fellow singer Tanya Tucker, and songwriter Bob McDill were the three people chosen for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame for the calendar year 2023. She was formally inducted by her friend Vince Gill at a medallion ceremony on November 22, 2023.

Loveless's first marriage was to Terry Lovelace, drummer for the Wilburn Brothers, in 1973. After marrying him, she altered her surname to Loveless. According to the Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music, this change came about because she thought it would help to keep her from being mistaken for pornographic actress Linda Lovelace. She divorced Terry Lovelace in 1986. Loveless's brother Roger, who played several key roles in her early career, died at age 72 in June 2022.

Patty Loveless has won five Country Music Association awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, and two Grammy Awards.