Patty Loveless - Mountain Soul

[jenglisbe]

Last night on the CMA Awards Patty Loveless performed "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" with Chris Stapleton. It's a song she covered for her 2001 album Mountain Soul. That album is one of the few music albums I've ever heard that can also be considered a sociological study of a region. The album features songs about coal mining, religious devotion, alcoholism, interpersonal relationships, and just trying to find meaning in the daily grind of life. There are multiple references to Harlan, and plenty of colloquialisms native to a specific region of the U.S. The musicianship and singing are both top-notch. Every song on the album is sung with empathy and merits inclusion, and each song tells a story that is both specific yet also relevant to this region. It's astounding and frankly one of the best albums of all-time.