Short Biography

Patty Loveless (born Patty Lee Ramey, January 4, 1957 in Pikeville, Kentucky, raised in Elkhorn City, Kentucky and Louisville, Kentucky) is an American country music singer.

Since her emergence on the country music scene in 1987 with her first, self-titled album, Loveless has been one of the most popular female singers of the Neotraditional country movement, although she has also recorded albums in the Country pop and Bluegrass genres.

Loveless rose to stardom thanks to her blend of honky tonk and country-rock, not to mention a plaintive, emotional ballad style. Her late-1980s records were generally quite popular, earning her comparisons to Patsy Cline, but most critics agreed that she truly came into her own as an artist in the early 1990s.

To date, Loveless has charted more than forty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including five Number Ones. In addition, she has recorded fourteen studio albums (not counting compilations); in the United States, four of these albums have been certified platinum, while two have been certified gold.[1]

She is the 65th member of the Grand Ole Opry. Loveless is also a distant cousin of Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle.[2] She has been married twice, first to Terry Lovelace (1976 – 1986), from whom her professional name "Loveless" is derived, and to Emory Gordy, Jr. (1989 – Present), who is also her producer.

Patty Lee Ramey was born the sixth of seven children to John and Naomi Ramey outside of Pikeville, Kentucky on 4 January 1957. Although born in Pikeville, the family lived in a small town nearby named Belcher Holler[3] where her father was a coal miner.

Patty Ramey`s interest in music started when she was a young child. In 1969, when she was twelve, the Ramey family moved to Louisville, Kentucky in search of medical care for John Ramey, who was afflicted with "Black Lung Disease" (Coalworker`s pneumoconiosis).[4]

Her older sister, Dotty Ramey, was an aspiring country singer, and would perform frequently at small clubs in Eastern Kentucky, with her brother Roger Ramey, known as the "Swinging Rameys". Traveling with Dottie and Roger to Fort Knox in 1969, and hearing her sister perform on stage, Patricia Ramey decided that she would like to become a performer as well.[5]

When her sister Dottie married in 1969 and quit performing, Roger Ramey convinced Patricia to perform onstage for the first time at a small country jamboree in Louisville. The forum consisted of foldout chairs in a small auditorium and was called the "Lincoln Jamboree". She was terrified at first, but with her brother performed several songs, however she loved the applause she received for her performance, and after the show she was paid five dollars, the first money she ever earned.[6]

Patty Ramey joined her brother Roger and started singing together at several clubs in Louisville Kentucky, under the name "Singin` Swingin` Rameys".[7] Loveless and her brother would perform in various clubs in the Louisville area. A local radio announcer, Danny King with a country radio station in Louisville was a supporter of the Ramey kids. Whenever there was an opportunity for them to appear on stage, he would call up the Rameys and try to get them a booking.

It was her brother Roger that initially took Patricia Ramey to Nashville, Tennessee in 1971. Having grown up listening to the music of the Grand Ole Opry both in Pikeville, and then in Louisville, Roger had mo

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