Consumer Guide Album

Patsy Cline: Live at the Opry [MCA, 1988]
As someone who's always bought Cline's myth and never much enjoyed her recorded music, I can hardly express what a relief it is to hear her free of the glop that half-drowns the supposedly definitive Patsy Cline Story. The rockabilly raunch and uncanny phrasing her official work just hints at are the heart of these superbly remastered radio transcriptions--try the feral "Lovesick Blues" and the heart-stopping full-beat hesitations on "She's Got You," respectively. My only objection is that the compilers couldn't resist turning out a document, and thus include her debut flop and suchlike. There has to be a complete live best-of out there. And the world needs it. A-