Patty Loveless' 2008 CD, Sleepless Nights: The Traditional Country Soul of Patty Loveless. Photo courtesy of Saguaro Road Records.

The Wilburns signed Patty as a staff songwriter for their song-publishing company and took her on the road as the female vocalist in their troupe. She replaced Loretta Lynn, who is her distant cousin. Patty worked for the Wilburns during her last three years of high school.

"For my 16th birthday, Doyle Wilburn gave me studio time to record some of the songs I had written. Pig Robbins and Billy Linneman both played on that recording session! Those were my first Nashville recordings."

After her high school graduation, she married a drummer and moved to North Carolina. For the next eight years she fronted rock bands. Around 1983, Patty resumed writing country songs. In 1985, brother Roger took a tape of her tunes to producers Tony Brown and, fatefully, Emory Gordy Jr. Co-produced by Tony and Emory, Patty’s 1988 revival of the George Jones oldie "If My Heart Had Windows" became her first top-10 hit. She joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry that
year.

By the mid-1990s, Patty and Emory were inseparable. He produced her 1993 Only What I Feel collection and its big hits "Blame it on Your Heart" and "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye." The album became her first platinum record. Their platinum 1995 album When Fallen Angels Fly yielded the massive radio favorites "I Try to Think About Elvis" and "You Don’t Even Know Who I Am" and was named the CMA Album of the Year. "You Can Feel Bad" and "Lonely
Too Long" both became Number-One hits in 1996. They were on The Trouble with the Truth," the platinum record that earned her the CMA’s Female Vocalist of the Year award.

From Long Stretch of Lonesome came her collaboration with George Jones, "You Don’t Seem to Miss Me." It won the 1998 CMA award for Vocal Event of the Year. She won this award again in 1999 for singing "My Kind of Woman, My Kind of Man" with her frequent vocal partner Vince Gill. The Emory-produced Strong Heart (2000) was followed by her bluegrass-music masterpieces Mountain Soul (2001) and Bluegrass & White Snow (2002). On the first named was Patty’s revival of "Just Someone I Used to Know," one of the tunes she had harmonized with
Porter and Dolly as a teenager.

Patty and Emory’s more recent collaborations in the studio have included her much-acclaimed albums On Your Way Home, which included the Grammy-nominated title track for Best Female Country Performance (2003) and Dreamin’ My Dreams (2005). They rehearsed music for both CDs at their home studio in Dallas, Georgia. Atlanta native Emory Gordy Jr. was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992. Patty Loveless joined him as a member of that Hall of Fame in 2005.

Emory’s mother died that year. Patty’s mother died in 2006. "It was pretty devastating," says Patty. "When your loved ones start passing away, you try to recapture memories." The idea of paying tribute to her mentor sister had been percolating for more than a decade. Now it seemed to be more timely than ever. Over the years, the couple had drawn up a list of more than 500 songs to consider. Now this was winnowed down to 47, then 17 and finally to the 14 that
comprise Sleepless Nights: The Traditional Country Soul of Patty Loveless.

"It was difficult, because over the years we’ve been listening and collecting. I had a hard time choosing. But I guess the good side of it is that if we do a second record like this, we’ll have plenty more to select from."