After a good run on the country charts, Patty Loveless found herself in an unaccustomed setting. For a good eight years, she was almost always at the top of the country charts.

But as befalls many artists, things started going the other way.

Instead of attempting to go for the commercial jugular and back where she belonged, Loveless went in a very very different direction - her eastern Kentucky roots and bluegrass/mountain/Appalachian music with "Mountain Soul" in 2001.

For some, that could have been the end of a relationship with a record company as well because in these trying economic times, no sales means no record deal.

The album probably would not have had much chance at the cash register under ordinary circumstances.

Of course, those were not ordinary times. "Mountain Soul" certainly was not a commercial album, but it sure came out at the right time.

The "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack had been released about seven months before "Mountain Soul" and done fantastic numbers surprising just about anyone and everyone.

Instead of disappearing in the marketplace, "Mountain Soul" sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and Loveless herself was part of the "Down From the Mountain" tour based on the "Oh Brother" success bringing her to a wider audience.

On the heels of that, Loveless released an album harkening back more to her country roots, "On Your Way Home," without selling her soul for sales.

"I feel that this one was inspired somewhat by the 'Mountain Soul,'" says Loveless during a phone interview from her weekend home in Georgia. "I had recorded in the year 2000. We kind of wanted to do a record that was capable of being mainstream country, but at the same time, we were able to take some of those influences of the 'Mountain Soul' record through the making of this one."

"This particular record, I feel that this is the closest I've ever come to being traditional mainstream country with an edge," says Loveless. "It's the first record I've ever done that I felt that we were able to accomplish that finally. It's the one first one that doesn't have any kind of piano, strings or synthesizers, which is what I'm talking about. No keyboards whatsoever. But it was a mixture: fiddle and mandolin, acoustic guitar are on the record and then a mixture with banjo and Dobro. It really, of course, complimented electric bass, drums and electric guitar. The blend of these instruments was appropriate of all of these songs."

At 46, Loveless says she thinks the same was right for her to make this kind of music and apparently not be concerned about the commercial success of the album.

"I'd come to a point in my career where 'Mountain Soul' made me so fearless of presenting music in this kind of format. I felt like there weren't any really hard core country female artists out there, and I've always been sort of somewhat that style of artist. But I also did this record for myself, for my own soul."

Some observers could have labeled "Mountain Soul" as a vanity project by an artist who had done well for a label, but had a yen to do something different.

"I was allowed to have that artistic freedom," says Loveless. "As far as the 'Mountain Soul' record, it sort of helped develop a new audience for me as well. An audience that didn't really know the music that Patty Loveless did. I think some of them who knew my music, some of them might have thought I was a contemporary country music, just another country music singer. I thought that's what the way some of them might have looked at me at one time."

But that perception may well have changed on the "Down From the Mountain" tour, a conglomeration of musicians touring together in the wake of the soundtrack. Loveless was not actually even on the soundtrack, unlike others on the tour such as Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss + Union Station and Ralph Stanley.

But Loveless' music fit with the concept. Some observers said she benefited more than anyone else on the tour from the exposure that it drew to the artists.

In fact, Loveless' inclusion on the tour specifically led to the inclusion of one song on "On Your Way Home," the first single, Rodney Crowell's "Lovin' All Night."

Crowell, who recorded the song 11 years ago, served as the emcee of the evening of "O Brother" music. His job was to introduce the players, who would generally do a few songs in Grand Ole Opry style and then have another artist take over.

Loveless and Crowell were on a concert stop in Roanoke, Va. They were actually planning to sing a song by the Louvins instead.

"It was real country," she says. "I felt like it was a little bit more country sounding. I think in the long run, the producer of the show wanted Rodney to do one of his songs. He decided to do 'Lovin'.' He came and asked me if I'd go up and sing it with him."

"As I recall that night, it wasn't when I was singing it I thought I'd record it. It all came back to me when we were picking songs for the record."

"The way he writes is so colorful, and so visual," says Loveless of Crowell. "That's where it becomes very hard for me. I'm always trying to find songs where you're almost standing there looking at a painting."

Loveless made it to the top 20 with the song before it stalled.

Loveless feels that not every audience reaction is generated from playing a big hit from her catalogue.

On her tour earlier this year, Loveless, of course, played "Lovin' All Night."

"I find with this record - it came out Sept. 16, and I've been out (touring) since May - they respond of course to 'Lovin All Night,' but they respond to 'On Your Way Home' like it's a big hit. It's a wonderful surprise. But at the same time, these people have been big supporters of records I've been making for many many years. I just don't want to do music that is so predictable."

Nor does she want to put her finger in the air and see which way the wind is necessarily blowing either.

Loveless says when she first heard the song from Ronnie Samoset and Matraca Berg that would eventually become the title track she "thought I've got to do that song. I've got to record it. It was just the depth of the lyrics. The lyrics were very haunting. Melodically, I thought the song was just something very hypnotizing. Something just pulled me in. I like finding that kind of song. That's when it tells me this song is going somewhere, but you know everybody hears songs differently, hears lyrics differently because everybody's life is different."

"Whenever I go in the studio, I'm always going in there thinking of the songs and thinking of the music," says the Pikeville, Ky. native. "I don't like going in there thinking 'what are we are going to do and how is my label going to market this?'"

"I think for an artist, it's important that you go in there and motivate yourself. You got to grab something that's going to motivate you. There are some songs I go and say I'm so ready to do this today and can't wait to hear it after it's been laid down. That's mostly what I try to think about. I don't really stop to think is this going to get played on the radio, or is this going to be a single. I just go in and let the song become what it's supposed to become."

The album, produced as usual by her hubby Emory Gordy Jr., contains 11 songs and as usual none of them penned by Loveless, who has written very very few songs that made it onto the finished music.

Since she doesn't write, that means Loveless might sift through probably hundreds of songs.

"You go through so many songs," says Loveless of the process so typical for Nashville artists. "For the most part, there are so many that just don't fit, and you do struggle to try to find songs. I struggle to find songs that have lyrics of substance."

Picking songs wasn't an easy proposition.

"We got together in the beginning of the search for these songs. We formed together a little listening party, but it wasn't to listen to this record. We invited all these publishers, (the late songwriter) Harlan Howard was among them. It was different publishing companies, and they came to the party. Sony gave the party. It was like in the middle of the day. Then, Emory and I had pulled songs from previous records that I had done even back to MCA days and had put together a whole collage of Patty Loveless songs and the songs that weren't necessarily singles either and just let it play to give people the kind of music that we were looking for. It seemed like it was going back to the same particular (kind of music) I was trying to develop. It was traditional with an edge. The result was we were receiving songs that took me back to the basics of traditional music, traditional country."

Loveless selected songs from a variety of songwriters. Marty Stuart and Paul Kennerly wrote the leadoff "Draggin' My Heart Around." Jim Lauderdale and Buddy and Julie Miller inked "Looking for a Heartache Like You," both songs adding to the edgy quotient in the music.

"I think I tend to gravitate towards those writers that have a little more edge to their melodies and their songs and do not limit themselves in how they speak out in a song."

The most personal sounding song on the disc is the closing song, "The Grandpa That I Know."

The song opens with the burial of a man who was a farmer and the difficulties of the storyteller in coming to terms with the facts of life. "They all say he looks so natural, but all I see's a cold, dark hole," sings Loveless in the Tim Mensy/Shawn Camp song. "I won't commit this day to memory/that ain't the grandpa that I know."

Loveless first heard the song about 10 years ago when her husband produced an album for Camp, who had a short career with Warner.

"During this time, he recorded that song, and I just fell in love with it. It was just amazing. In the making of my record, Emory brought it to my attention again. I was just a little bit concerned how we could make it more of a female perspective, from a young girl's (viewpoint)."

"So, the way I approached it is Emory's grandfather - they called him Poppa Cochran - he actually would tell me stories about his grandfather. I never met him. Of course, he was deceased. When I'd go into the studio, I'd start to think about how Emory felt about his grandfather. It became more personal to me."

Loveless conducted the interview from Dallas, Ga., where Cochran grew up.

So how is it working with your husband?

"Of course, working together, we're always listening to the songs," says Loveless of the man who once upon a time was the bassist for Elvis Presley. "We both have somewhat of the same opinion, but we do differ in opinions sometimes."

"He may hear songs that's just perfect for the project. And, of course, I may not think so. And vice versa. When I go in there, I know it's my record, but at the same time, I feel working with him, I like sharing projects and things like this with other people. He's just as much (a part of) making the record as I am, to me."

"As far as myself, my voice is my instrument, and he and I - we work so well together - I can almost (tell where) he wants me to go with it, and I love the way he works with the musicians, and he's part of the making of the music. He's playing bass, sitting behind the console and producing. It makes him a better producer and allows him to communicate better."

"We always run music by each other, songs by each other. We give our honest opinion with each other. Even if it's something not working in the studio, not going down in the studio as I thought it should be, I don't say anything in front of the other people. I go off in the corner and say 'I'm not sure that instrument is quite working in that song. That kind of relationship, I think, it really works for us."

Loveless first met Gordy in 1986 as a co-producer with Tony Brown, then head of MCA Records and a big Loveless booster. "Like a year later, that's when we took even more interest in each other," says Loveless.

"I think the beauty of him is his love and passion for music and many genres of music," says Loveless, who previously was married to a musician in a rock band for whom she was the singer. "It wasn't one particular (genre). He's turned me on to so much music he shared that with me. I was mainly listening to rock and roll and country and the bluegrass music that I'd been raised on. It was music that I used to listen to when I was living at home with my parents. He just has a lot of passion for great music. I think that's the reason I fell in love with him."

The two married in 1989.

And during the involvement of Gordy, Loveless' career took off starting in 1988 with hits like "Blue Side of Town," "Don't Toss Us Away," "Timber I'm Falling in Love" and "Chains."

The slew of hits continued through 1996: "Blame It On Your Heart," the very emotional "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" and the very jocular "I Try to Think About Elvis," and number ones "You Can Feel Bad" and "Lonely Too Long."

But then the hits stopped coming as readily. The "Strong Hearts" disc from 2000 yielded no big hits and set the stage for a change with "Mountain Soul."

While looking ahead, Loveless also looks back on "On Your Way Home."

"Last in a Long Lonesome Line" comes off as being about a tough life of "Tears and whiskey, yeah, I spilled my share/but it's the music that's kept me goin' through all of these years/ and there's some songs still need singin'/Before closin' time."

"When I heard the song, I thought it was basically talking about some of those artists who have paved the road, their souls had truly paved the road for country music," says Loveless, who grew up on cousin Loretta Lynn, the Willburns and Dolly and Porter. "They had paved the road for all of us - George Jones, Merle Haggard. I thought about some of these artists that had lived through their songs. When you listen to their music, you can almost see inside this person and the life they lived. They're (putting) their feelings inside this music."

"I got in there and tried to find music, find songs that would be appropriate for the format of radio today, but at the same time making music for the people have been following my career all these years, my audience and my fans that I have developed over many many years. I don't think any of my fans who come to my shows or are in the audience is really surprised by this particular record."