New Music From Late Country Singer Patsy Cline Released More Than 60 Years After Her Death

The never-before-released tracks are featured on the limited edition two-LP set ‘Imagine That: The Lost Recordings.’

Pasty Cline's image is displayed during the PBS portion of the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 15, 2017. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Patsy Cline released only three studio albums before her promising career in country music was tragically cut short. The singer was killed in March 1963 at the age of 30 when a plane she was traveling in crashed near Camden, Tennessee.

Despite the late vocalist’s untimely death, country fans can still listen to some of her new music with the release of “Imagine That: The Lost Recordings (1954-1963),” a limited edition two-LP set that features 48 of Cline’s never-before-released recordings.

The project, from Elemental Music and Deep Digs Music Group, debuted on April 12 for Record Store Day, an annual event that celebrates the culture of indie record stores.

The collection features recordings of songs that Cline—who was known for collaborating with producer Owen Bradley—performed on various programs and television shows.

“These meticulously restored performances cast a fresh spotlight on Cline’s luminous, powerful voice, and eschew the opulent strings and vocal choruses of Bradley’s productions in favor of an intimate, unadorned, earthy sound,” Elemental Music states on its website.

Alternate versions of some of Cline’s biggest country-pop crossover hits, including “Walking After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Crazy,” and “She’s Got You,” are also featured on the LP, which will be released as a two-CD set on April 18.

“Coproduced by award-winning archival producer Zev Feldman, Cline discographer and authority George Hewitt, and engineer Dylan Utz, ‘Imagine That’ features a detailed track-by-track discography; a historical note by writer Martin Melhuish; reflections on Cline’s art by musicians k.d. lang, Marty Stuart, and Ray Benson; and more,” Elemental Music notes.

The collection was endorsed by the Patsy Cline Estate, with Cline’s daughter, Julie Fudge, 66, serving as an executive producer on the project.

“It’s just like she’s alive again,” Fudge told NBC News. “It is really very personal. And I’m just so impressed with the work that these people did and so glad that we trusted them to do this.”

Speaking to People, Fudge—who was only 4 when her mother died—said bringing the collection to life has “been such a blessing.”

“It’s just so real,” she told the publication. “A lot of people — when you lose someone — you don’t have all these different avenues to remember them. The fact that it’s been more than 60 years and to still have her in our lives every day is quite an accomplishment.”

Remembering Patsy Cline

Born on Sept. 8, 1932, in Winchester, Virginia, Cline spent her early years singing in local clubs and talent shows, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In the early 1950s, Cline began working with local musician Bill Peer, singing with his group, the Melody Boys and Girls.

She went on to garner her first recording contract in September 1954, releasing her debut single, “A Church, a Courtroom and Then Goodbye,” in July 1955.

Cline eventually put out her first album, “Patsy Cline,” in August 1957. After welcoming her daughter the following August, the singer moved to Nashville and signed with Decca Records, subsequently becoming a member of the historic music venue the Grand Ole Opry.

Cline’s sophomore album, “Showcase,” debuted in November 1961, the same year she welcomed her second child, son Randy. Her third record, “Sentimentally Yours,” followed in August 1962.

On March 5, 1963, a small private plane that Cline was flying in crashed about 90 miles outside Nashville.

The vocalist, along with fellow singers Lloyd Estel Copas, known as Cowboy Copas, and Harold Franklin “Hawkshaw” Hawkins, were returning to Music City from a benefit concert they had performed at two days prior at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, Remind Magazine reported.

Everyone aboard the plane, including Cline’s manager, Randy Hughes, who piloted the aircraft, died as a result of the crash.

In April 2017, the Patsy Cline Museum opened in Nashville in honor of the singer’s life and enduring legacy in the world of country music. The museum, on the second floor of the Johnny Cash Museum, features an array of Cline’s personal belongings as well as costumes, videos, and other artifacts from her career.

“Everyone has been thrilled with, first of all, the fact that there is a place to go now, and secondly with how well it’s been done,” Fudge told uDiscoverMusic in 2017. “I love to read the letters and the little things I find because they put together a puzzle, all the way back, and I just love that part of it.”