It takes two to honky-tonk

"Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets" (Bandit) is a bit of a catch-all, combining vault material from the recording sessions for two of George Jones's all-star duets records, 1991's "Friends in High Places" and 1994's "The Bradley Barn Sessions."

Those outtakes are book-ended by a recently discovered pairing with Jones's greatest duet partner, Tammy Wynette, and a new duet with daughter Georgette, the only child from George and Tammy's marriage. The surprise is that "You and Me and Time," Jones's turn with his daughter, is by far the better of the two, due largely to the quality of her singing (and in spite of the aging to which the Possum's voice is now succumbing).

By contrast, the Jones-Wynette discovery is interesting more as artifact than for its musical merits. As for the outtakes, not surprisingly, they're a mixed lot. A few are misbegotten (Keith Richards croaking along on "Burn Your Playhouse Down"), and some are merely unremarkable ("The Window Up Above" with Leon Russell and a listless version of "I Always Get Lucky with You" with Shelby Lynne).

Several, however match-ups with Vince Gill ("Selfishness in Man"); Marty Stuart ("You're Still on My Mind"); Ricky Skaggs, still in his country mode before he rededicated himself to bluegrass ("She Once Lived Here"); and Jones acolyte Mark Chesnutt ("When the Grass Grows Over Me") attain that vintage, George Jones hardcore honky-tonk sound. This isn't an essential collection by any stretch, but it's still a recovery of some worthwhile late-period Jones. [Stuart Munro]