Track Listing

1. Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing - Vince Gill, Gladys Knight
2. Funny How Time Slips Away - Al Green, Lyle Lovett
3. I Fall to Pieces - Aaron Neville, Trisha Yearwood
4. Somethin' Else - Little Richard, Tanya Tucker
5. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby - Patti LaBelle, Travis Tritt
6. Rainy Night in Georgia - Sam Moore, Conway Twitty
7. Chain of Fools - Clint Black, The Pointer Sisters
8. Since I Fell for You - Natalie Cole, Reba McEntire
9. Southern Nights - Chet Atkins, Allen Toussaint
10. Weight - The Staple Singers, Marty Stuart
11. Patches - George Jones, B.B. King

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4980 in Music
• Released on: 1994-03-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Where so many duet projects seem like shotgun marriages, this one sounds like a labor of love, celebrating Southern music as a common denominator that transcends racial and categorical divides. Among the highlights, the pairing of Lyle Lovett and Al Green finds revelation within the funky groove of "Funny How Time Slips Away," while the album-closing "Patches"--with George Jones playing father to B.B. King's son--achieves a spine-tingling majesty. Though Natalie Cole and Reba McEntire misconnect on "Since I Fell for You," Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) and the late Conway Twitty are at their soulful best on "Rainy Night in Georgia." --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews

Overlooked Gem
Did you ever read a book -- then read it again ten years later, and make the pleasant discovery that the parts you'd mentally underlined or highlighted years earlier, are NOT the same ones that `reach' you today? Witness, if you will, this amazing concept album, you may have forgotten (I had, almost.)

If you are like me, you may have almost forgotten this gem. If you're like my sister Andrea (who has the most amazing singing voice I've ever heard) you've NEVER tasted of its amazing grace.

'Sis,' who has refined musical tastes, last night dignified my latest review (for a Tom T. Hall compilation) by sniffing: "YOU'RE listening to country music now?? Ouch!!!" I resisted the urge to remind `Anra' about Ray Charles' classic country music album of 40 years ago (with the definitive version of Eddy Arnold's "You Don't Know Me").

Her comment made me go and rummage out this CD. Sure enough, there there it was: something I'd vaguely recalled from the superb liner notes, by James Hunter. A short quotation of the album's co-producer Tony Brown, from the days when he first worked with Gospel singer Shirley Caesar: "She had ALWAYS loved country music!"

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Back in late 1994 when this album was released, it was Chet Atkins' duet with Alain Toussaint (on the latter's best selling composition, "Southern Nights") that prompted me to track down this disc in the first place. I'm pleasantly surprised to find this very day that, some tracks I didn't give a second listen to, back then, are now at center stage in my heart: As with good spiritual reading, when the light goes on, I am `lifted up.'

First things first: Amazingly, most of the singers featured here had never met before they got together in the studio with co-producer Don Was. The producer(s) had to guess at which artists might have `chemistry' at their first time meeting.

In this firmament there are stars in ascension -- Trisha Yearwood & Aaron Neville singing "I Fall to Pieces." And others, perhaps in decline but still able to shine brightly as they `rise to the occasion' -- Sam Moore & Conway Twitty, in harmony and `sync' - for a "Rainy Night in Georgia."

Some pairings are timeless and shine as brightly as ever - Natalie Cole & Reba McEntire caressing Buddy Johnson's (blues band) beautiful chestnut from 1948, "Since I Fell for You." And Gladys Knight and Vince Gill agreeing that "There Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing."

Only one track here might underline (for someone like my sister) the difference between talent and kitsch; and it's literally "Something Else" by Little Richard & Tanya Tucker. But, hey --- ten out of eleven ain't bad!

Ten years on . . . and what's my new favorite? A four-leaf clover I managed to overlook before. Then-rising-star Marty Stuart conjures up magic with the heart of a Soul/Gospel band who hadn't had a hit in years - the Staple Singers, Mavis and `Pops'. Marty (a superb instrumentalist in his own right) elevates the introduction to Robbie Robertson's "The Weight" . . . . "I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' `bout half past dead' . . . and soon enough, Pops & Mavis seize control of the narrative, and the whole group (as James Hunter puts it, "rejoices throughout the chorus. These people are like pilgrims on the road . . . turning plain plights and shifting responsibilities into Gospel Good News."

`Anra,' my dear sister, you may never know what you missed.

Mark Blackburn
Winnipeg

The best of Memphis meet the best of Nashville
I never paid much attention to country music until I heard this collection of duets. The best voices of R&B with the best of country. What stands out? Conway Twitty and Sam (Sam and Dave) Moore doing "Rainy Night in Georgia," and Aaron Neville with Trisha Yearwood on "I Fall to Pieces." Many other fine collaborations, but these are memorable.

For anyone who loves country and r&b standards, who wants to hear talented voices in new territory, or who wants a well-rounded musical education, this MAY be the best album you can find.

Unique collaborations performing great songs
Wonderful songs performed by artists from across racial and musical genre lines, reminds us how creativity can be enhanced when musicians make a conscious effort to break away from successful formulas and try something different. Lyle Lovett and Al Green's slow burn on "Funny How Time Slips Away" is the stand-out, but almost every track (exception -- Reba and Natalie Cole duet on "Since I Fell for You") is fun. Some, like Conway Twitty and Sam Moore's version of "Rainy Night in Georgia", underscore the common roots of country and r&b. This CD gets repeat listening at my house. n.b.--When this CD was released, the program director of Chicago's biggest country radio station was quoted in the Tribune as saying that he wouldn't give it airtime because too many people were trying to jump on the country bandwagon. This type of narrow thinking seems typical of the mainstream country music industry, and may explain why I've just about stopped listening to country radio.