Patsy Cline

It's a testament to the enduring legacy of Patsy Cline that these tracks include many of the great standards of country music itself. Such classics may have been recorded many times over, by many different voices, but few of those versions pack the potency of Cline's stunning originals.

Along with legendary producer Owen Bradley, Patsy Cline became a founding architect of the Nashville Sound of the '50s and '60s. If her biggest hits were the pinnacle of the period's success, these Next Steps, each a classic in its own right, are its foundations and building blocks.

Born Virginia Patterson Hensley, Patsy Cline began her musical life as a yodeling, rough-and-tumble honky-tonk angel. As our Deep Cuts amply demonstrate, she made the transition from brassy and bold to rich and evocative with the sort of care and bravado that only a true legend can muster.

Over the course of her 31 years, Patsy Cline evolved from honky-tonker to crossover trailblazer of the Nashville Sound and, along the way, redefined stardom for the ladies of country. Cline died in a 1963 plane crash, but decades later, C&W still bears the mark of her incomparable talent and richness of voice — a voice imbued with the character, strength, and vulnerability that comes only from a life lived hard and a heart laid bare.