A return to the 'Mountain'

Patty Loveless is relaxing at home in Nashville, preparing for the tour that brings her to Walnut Creek on Saturday. The tour will present music from and promote her new Saguaro Road Records CD, "Mountain Soul II."

The album is a sequel to "Mountain Soul," the acclaimed collection of acoustic bluegrass songs she released in 2001. While the "Mountain Soul" projects are a detour from the mainstream country music that made her a star, they return Loveless to the music she heard and sang while growing up as a coal miner's daughter in Kentucky.

Produced by her husband, Emory Gordy Jr., "Mountain Soul II" has a relaxed, laid-back feel, the kind one would hear in a living room jam session. Loveless says that was the goal she and Gordy aimed for when recording the album.

"It was as if I had invited the musicians to my home," she says. "That was the feel. We wanted it to come off as if it was live.

"We had people coming in and hanging - people dropping in even if they weren't playing on the record. They just wanted to see what was going on. It kind of reminded me of years ago when I began recording. When word got around on Music Row, somebody would drop in just to see what was going on."

After beginning her career as a rocker, Loveless moved to Nashville in 1985. She released her first album in 1987, and reached the top 10 with a cover of George Jones' 1967 hit, "If My Heart Had Windows." In 1996, Loveless was voted the Country Music Association's Top Female Vocalist.

A Nashville denizen for nearly a quarter-century, Loveless has assembled an impressive array of talented friends, many of whom were eager to assist in recording "Mountain Soul II."

Guest artists appearing on the album include Vince Gill (who began his career in bluegrass), Emmylou Harris, Jon Randall, the Del McCoury family, Dobroists Rob Ickes and Mike Auldridge, steel player Al Perkins and Loveless' labelmate, Rebecca Lynn Howard.

They contribute to 15 tracks ranging from old standards ("Busted") to contemporary compositions ("When the Last Curtain Falls," "Bramble and the Rose") and a trio of gospel songs. The gospel tracks appear in the middle of the album and feature "Working on a Building" along with a cappella versions of "Friends in Gloryland" and "(We Are All) Children of Abraham," written by Loveless and Gordy.

Loveless also revisits songs she recorded earlier in her career. This time around, "A Handful of Dust," "Half Over You," "Feelings of Love," "Blue Memories," and "Big Chance" receive the acoustic treatment she will bring with her on tour.

Known for such chart-topping country hits as "Timber I'm Falling in Love," "Blame it on Your Heart" and "I Try to Think about Elvis," Loveless brought some country textures to "Mountain Soul II." The unusual combination of Perkins' wailing steel guitar and Ickes' blue Dobro complement each other on the mournful "Half Over You" and "Prisoner's Tears."

For the tour, Loveless has assembled a talented, versatile band capable of switching instruments as each song requires. Fans accustomed to her country style will hear a different sound this time. Like the Grand Ole Opry of yesteryear, there will be no drum kit pounding out the rhythms.

"What I've decided to do [on this tour] is to pare down," Loveless says. "This is the first time I haven't taken out a drummer. It's quite different, because we all have to lock in to our inner tempo. We can't depend on a drummer to set the tempo. It's quite different. That's the way it was happening on the record."

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