And Blake, if Why Baby Why is your least favorite cut from Patty’s album, with a B+ no less, that certainly does speak well of your opinion of her Sleepless Nights CD as a whole. Can’t wait to see your year end evaluations and lists..

Yeah, I think my favorites from SN are Crazy Arms, Why Baby Why, and I am with ya Leeann (and Blake) on The Pain of Loving You..(the most Mountain sounding song on the album) and the title cut as well, which took some time but REALLY grew on me! Such depth of emotion and passion, even by Patty’s high standards.

That’s All it Took…I am delighted that Patty’s been including that in her set list this year, along with five others from Sleepless Nights…WONDERFUL song, and her performance of Cold Cold Heart is even better live, and is truly heart wrenching and tear inducing..Kinda caught me by surprise when she closed with CCH, and I had that reaction..Yep, Patty Loveless can make grown men cry.

I know it would on my list be if I had it though.

I think our general confusion about whether or not “Crazy Arms” was a single (which, honestly, is still a gray area to me as well) speaks more about the culture of country/Americana radio than anything else. Cowboy Bleau asked about Trace Adkins’ “I Can’t Outrun You” earlier, and I justified its absence because it wasn’t officially issued to country (or any genre) radio. I’m happy to see that GAC has been playing the video for “Crazy Arms” occasionally, as that’s the only major outlet that I know which prominently featured Loveless. Good on them.

There were many album cuts that I enjoyed much more than the singles listed above. “Sleepless Nights,” “The Pain of Loving You,” and “That’s All It Took” are my favorites from the album, but there’s not a single bad cut on the whole project.

As a whole, the album is one of the finest of the year, in my opinion. Given that we will be having a “Year in Review” theme next week, as well as listing the albums of the year, this won’t be the last time Loveless is mentioned.

I enjoyed “Why Baby Why”, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to include in my top submissions. It’s good, but not something overly memorable to me. As for “Crazy Arms”, I probably would have included if it had been released as an official single rather than just as a video. It’s interesting that I have as much mainstream as I do, since I never ever listen to regular country radio anymore. I try to keep current with it in other ways though.
Ben, I actually like the production on “Another Try.” The strings may be a little much, but I don’t even think they’re overwhelming…not in a Glen Campbell kind of way anyway. I thought they wre pretty understated, really. I guess I don’t mind a church bell here and there.:)

LeAnn Rimes’ song has really good lyrics and a good message, but her singing his always bothered me. Sometimes she hits words too hard and it makes her singing sound harsh, even on ballads. Still a good song in composition though.

Lee Ann’s song is okay. Not much to say about it, just that I’ve heard it a few times.