Big enough to do what they like
Country and bluegrass legends go the team route on new releases
When you're a country or bluegrass legend as big as Willie Nelson or Ricky Skaggs, sure, you could make another solo album. Or you could just as easily get by with a little help from your friends, which is what both artists do on brand- new albums.
Last of the Breed, Vol. 1 & 2
(Lost Highway)
With 223 combined years on Earth, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price can certainly lay claim to being the "Last of the Breed." Add George Jones, and these guys represent the final line between old country and a conflagration of Chesneys.
But that doesn't make the legends infallible. "Last of the Breed" isn't a bad record. It's just slight, a paint-by-numbers Western swing album notable only for providing us with the distinctive crooning of the 81-year-old Price, who has recorded very little in the past two decades.
There are highlights, such as Price's rerecording of his nearly 50-year-old hit "Heartaches by the Number," and a world-weary Cindy Walker song, "Goin' Away Party." There are also plenty of clunkers. Not even country royalty should mess with "Why Me ," the Kris Kristofferson ballad recorded by Johnny Cash in the early '90s. There's also almost no reason to revive "I Love You Because," a song that's been done better by Leon Payne, who wrote it, as well as Elvis Presley, Carl Smith, Don Gibson, and Roger Whittaker.
With so much filler, we're left with a record that wants to take a stand but ends up feeling more like a countrified version of "The Golden Girls."
ESSENTIAL "Goin' Away Party"
GEOFF EDGERS
Each is a respected giant on his instrument -- Ricky Skaggs on mandolin, Bruce Hornsby on piano. Skaggs, who joined Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys when he was a teen, has won 11 Grammy awards . Hornsby, who has worked with everyone from the Grateful Dead to Pat Metheny , has won three.
Their partnership on this new, bluegrass-oriented disc is a rousing success as they combine original songs with traditional fare such as the cowboy tune "Hills of Mexico," the instrumental "Sheep Shell Corn" (given an old-timey feel reminiscent of the Skillet Lickers ), and the extraordinary "Across the Rocky Mountain," in which Skaggs sings with a mournful keen recalling his mentor, Stanley, and Hornsby adds subtle piano.
The two men are backed by Skaggs's band, Kentucky Thunder , so the music has a diligent folkie feel, with Hornsby keeping his renowned piano flash to a minimum (some songs have no piano at all). But there's also an appealing, improvisational edge in the way several tunes are stretched past six minutes, not to mention the stunning rearrangement of Hornsby's previous hit "Mandolin Rain" (switched to a minor key here) and the Rick James funk classic "Super Freak."
This last track might cause some bluegrass purists to wince in disbelief, but it's a fitting end to a progressive album that bursts beyond boundaries.
ESSENTIAL "Super Freak"
STEVE MORSE 