CMT Blog: Patsy Montana

Singer-songwriter Ashley Monroe has caught my attention. Her album, Satisfied, is a glimpse into the life of a heartbroken young woman who had to grow up too fast, dealing with the hardship of a broken family. After listening to the album, which is a blend of blues-filled lyrics, sensuality and a few just-for-fun tunes, you will find that Monroe has turned to her music for therapy.

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One of the coolest records to come across my desk this year is Suzy Bogguss’ Sweet Danger. All you country fans from the 1990s will remember her crystal-clear soprano from “Letting Go,” “Aces,” “Someday Soon” and several other hits. She knows she’s been out of touch lately but, like a lot of us, she checks her MySpace page every day.

“Just from getting on there half an hour a day, I feel like I have found so many old fans that I have lost touch with, because I didn’t have the big machine behind me anymore,” she told me over the phone. “That’s been incredibly valuable for me. Having started out by sitting down and writing 200 postcards, saying ‘Hey, I’m going to be back in Montana,’ this is a breeze. You blog one little paragraph and everybody knows what the heck is going on. I think it’s really groovy.”

It just so happened that while I was in Boston last month on vacation, she was playing at Club Passim in Cambridge. I was so impressed at her range of material that night, as she sang George Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” The Eagles’ “Take It to the Limit,” Merle Haggard’s “Somewhere Between” and Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now,” to name a few. And of course, Patsy Montana’s “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,” one of her early signatures.

I remarked, during our phone interview, that she came on the country scene when all eyes were on country music. “That was good timing for somebody who had the background and the influences that I have,” she replied. “Being a person with a rather eclectic taste, at that point in time, was a good thing.”

Back then, women were making the most memorable country records, in my opinion – Faith Hill, Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Reba McEntire, Wynonna and Mary Chapin Carpenter all come to mind. I remember marching out to “Letting Go” at my high school graduation in 1993 -- and then doing a little dance that I was finally out of there once the procession moved into the hallway.

If you ever spend the morning looking up old classmates on MySpace, check out Suzy Bogguss on there too. She’ll add you, I bet.