In her short lifetime Patsy Cline set a template for the definitive country torch song. With a sultry vocal style drenched in yearning, delivering musical tales of heartbreak and longing, the American singer recorded a clutch of studio albums and a string of hit singles before dying tragically in a plane crash 60 years ago aged just 30.
Her signature song, Crazy, has become a standard and a karaoke classic, and until Shania Twain came along she held the record for the largest-selling album by a female country artist. Plus her catalogue has provided a rich source of inspiration for some stellar admirers - the trailblazing k.d. lang has hailed Cline as her idol and was once backed by a group called The Reclines, and you can hear clear echoes of Cline's vibrato-laden voice in the recent work of the acclaimed Angel Olsen.
John Grant can be added to the list, too. He's such a big fan of Cline's that he decided to team up with fellow singer-songwriter Richard Hawley to perform an entire set of her repertoire as one of the concert highlights of this year's Manchester International Festival.
