Lydia Loveless

Biography by Mark Deming Firebrand country singer Lydia Loveless combines the honky tonk sound and style of classic country stars like Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline with the no-quarter attitude and spunk of punk rock divas such as Exene Cervenka and Carla Bozulich. Lydia Loveless was born in Coschocton, Ohio in 1990; she was raised on a farm, but her father was also a music fan who booked bands at a local bar, and Lydia became accustomed early on to seeing bands play and discovering an out-of-town act asleep on the living-room floor in the morning. By the time Loveless was 13, she had taken up songwriting and was playing shows with local bands, playing a combination of rootsy country and punk-influenced rock & roll. After relocating to Columbus, Ohio, Loveless fronted a pop/rock band, Carson Drew, with her sisters, but the combo broke up not long after the release of their 2006 album Under the Table, and Loveless began concentrating on her solo career, forming a backing band with her dad on drums. In 2010, Loveless self-released her first solo album, The Only Man, which earned her rave reviews from the alt-country music media, and as she began work on a follow-up EP, she was contacted by respected insurgent country label Bloodshot Records, who promptly signed Loveless to a record deal. At the label's behest, Loveless expanded the EP to an album, and her first Bloodshot release, Indestructible Machine, was released in September 2011.