Talent! Just pure, unadulterated talent! Kind of like Sinatra…she just knew what to do with a song and had the savvy and the technical ability to pull it off. I was in my early teens when she had her biggest hits and I couldn’t stand her. I didn’t like anything country and that’s what she sounded like to me and I couldn’t understand why her songs were being played on the same stations that were playing the Beach Boys and Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. I hated her songs so much that when she died I was glad I wouldn’t be having to listen to any more of her crap.
What a stupid mofo I was!
Later, I began to acquire the ability to recognize and appreciate extraordinary talent, and now I loves me some Patsy Cline. And where once I was glad I wouldn’t have to listen to her anymore, I wish now that she had lived and been recording music right up to this day.
from what my dad and others i know who love country music say, there are 2 things that make a singer “country;” a twang, and a cry. you have to have one or the other.
ms cline had “the cry.” there is an element in her voice that you can hear, sadness, sorrow, or heartache. even in the most happy “up” song, that element is there… telling you that there is always something lurking behind the joy.
that element is very country. life in the area that country music comes from is never easy, there is always some sorrow lurking in life. people lived hard and died hard.
i would vote ms cline, ms carpenter, and ms lang, amoung the top voices.