Remember When Patty Loveless and George Jones Released a Song Together in the 90s?
Patty Loveless and George Jones teamed up in 1997 for "You Don't Seem To Miss Me," a duet that became a Top 20 country single and highlighted one of the relatively few collaborations in Loveless's career. The song, taken from her ninth studio album Long Stretch Of Lonesome, went on to earn the pair a CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year, cementing its place among the notable country duets of the era.
The track was written by Jim Lauderdale, who composed it while staying in Pioneertown near Yucca Valley, California, after a conversation with his friend Victoria Williams sparked the title idea. Lauderdale initially intended to record the song himself, but Loveless and her husband and producer, Emory Gordy, heard it and persuaded him to hand it over to her instead. Loveless won the same CMA award again the following year for her duet "My Kind Of Woman/My Kind Of Man" with Vince Gill, while "You Don't Seem To Miss Me" was later covered in 2020 by Josh Turner, featuring Runaway June, on his album Country State Of Mind.
- Loveless and Jones's 1997 duet won a CMA Vocal Event of the Year award.
- Songwriter Jim Lauderdale wrote it in the California desert.
- Loveless and husband Emory Gordy convinced Lauderdale to give her the song.
New here? Start with this
Country music duets have long played a special role in Nashville, allowing established artists to combine their voices for a single standout track. Patty Loveless, an acclaimed country singer known largely for her solo work, and George Jones, one of the genre's most celebrated vocalists, are the two performers at the centre of this story from the late 1990s.
Their pairing came about through songwriter Jim Lauderdale, who wrote the track that would eventually become their collaboration. Though he had planned to record it himself, Loveless and her producer husband, Emory Gordy, stepped in and asked him to let her record it instead, setting the collaboration in motion.
The song went on to become a notable success, reaching the upper levels of the country charts and later winning a major industry award recognising outstanding duet performances. It remains a reference point in discussions of memorable country collaborations from that era, and has since been revisited by other artists.