Patty Booker

With her fierce passion and vocal ability, Patty Booker represents a throwback to artists like Loretta Lynn and Brenda Lee. In other words, this honky tonker is the real deal. In 1992, she had a track on the compilation A Town South of Bakersfield Volume 3 alongside the likes of Dale Watson. However, it wasn't until 1999 as a grandmother in her mid-'40s that she would self-release her full-length LP, I Don't Need All That. Patty Booker was born in San Pedro, CA, to Oklahoma transplants. During the '80s, Booker and her band tirelessly played the Orange County circuit. After her appearance on the Town South of Bakersfield compilation in the early '90s, Booker took time out to raise her kids. Finally, in 1998, with the assistance of country star Jann Browne, she began working on I Don't Need All That. With tracks such as "Hell Yes I Cheated" and "PMS" (which trolls the same bold waters as Loretta Lynn's "The Pill") the album calls to mind the pioneering, independent women of the '60s. This is country at its fiercest and rawest -- the way it should be. ~ Erik Hage