For an artist with such a deep catalog of charting singles, Jerry Wallace has gotten very little love on CD. Previous anthologies were larded with B-sides and album tracks, and at least one collection remastered critical sides at the wrong speed. So while Varese's 16-track CD only scratches the surface of Wallace's catalog, it finally delivers many of his seminal sides. Focused primarily on country hits from 1971 through 1974, this set only provides a cursory view of Wallace's earlier pop sides. A broader view awaits a double-CD or box set, but what's here is terrific, covering work for Challenge, Decca, MCA and 4-Star.

Recorded during Bob Wills' most productive years in the '30s and '40s, these tracks went unreleased until a vinyl issue on Longhorn records in 1981. Many of Wills' essential Playboys are here, including The Texas Drummer Boy, John Cuviello, and steel guitarist Noel Boggs. Tommy Duncan provides lead vocals on eight of the fifteen selections. Of particular interest is the war-era "G.I. Wish," the trad-jazz/dixieland "Darktown Strutters Ball," and the oft-recorded 1920's blues (turned into a Western Swing by Milton Brown in the mid-30s) "Corrine, Corrina." There are also five instrumentals that give the band's chops a chance to shine. Given the sheer volume of Wills' recordings that have found their way to CD, particularly the volumes of transcription recordings, nearly every one of these titles has already appeared in one form or another. Still, these are excellent performances that give a good sense of what Wills and his band could do. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

The country duet is a long venerated tradition most famously fueled by the tension of a marriage (George & Tammy, Johnny & June), family (Delmores, Louvins, Everlys, Kendalls), or long-standing professional relationship (Porter & Dolly). Many recent duets, in country, hip-hop and beyond seem to be sales events rather than actual artistic confluences. Still, in between marriages, families and marketing wet-dreams sit one-off partnerships built from the chemistry of friendship and shared musical values. Such is the pairing of honky-tonk maverick Jesse Dayton with newcomer Brennen Leigh, mixing originals and covers that bring out the conversational thrill of duet work.

Dayton sings in a low voice that shades to Jones and Jennings, while Leigh's background leans to bluegrass and gospel; Dayton provides the salty anchor to Leigh's sass on covers of George & Tammy ("Somethin' to Brag About") and Johnny & June ("Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man"). Leigh sings in the same range as fellow Austinite Kelly Willis, and her twang is surprisingly effective given her origins in the northern reaches of Minnesota. Dayton's baritone shaves the adolescence from The Everly Brothers "Brand New Heartache."

The album's originals keep this from turning into a simple exercise in nostalgia. The rollicking two-step tex-mex opener, "Let's Run Away," finds Datyon and Leigh singing in tandem, dreaming of leaving their problems as they escape to the four corners of the world. They taunt each other as they try to dance away bad memories on "Two Step Program," and put on false appearances to cover the broken romance of "Everything Looks Good (On the Outside)." The album's twangy moments include the up-tempo banjo bluegrass of "Somethin' Somebody Said" and the bittersweet ballad "We Hung the Moon." The latter sports superb Santo & Johnny styled pedal steel in support of vocals that arch plaintively into falsetto.

If Faith & Tim aren't you're idea of a real country duet (and recent collaborations between Caitlin Cary & Thad C ockrell and Rick Shea & Patty Booker are more your cup of Texas tea), this is a disc worth your attention. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

Having kicked cocaine and survived bypass surgery and a mild stroke, Jennings was slowed by emphysema and taken off the road by diabetes. But his love of the stage never left him, and in place of riding the bus for extended tours he scheduled one-off shows here and there. He reconstituted and expanded the Waylors with a horn section, fiddle player and backing vocalist and focused them on live performance. This January 2000 concert at the Ryman Auditorium wasn't Jennings' last (that came the following year in Kansas City), but with cameras and tape recorders rolling it as a something of a final hurrah, a grand celebration played out before a hugely appreciative audience.

Those of us who grew up in the rock era, particularly those who grew up outside the South (where country music still held sway during the '60s and '70s), know Atkins best through the impact he had on his acolytes. Starting with the merging of hillbilly and R&B into rockabilly, rock 'n' roll and rock, Atkins' picking technique (itself an expansion of Merle Travis' syncopated thumb-and-finger style) can be heard on Sun's early sides, from the guitar combos of the British Invasion, American instrumental bands like The Ventures, and through to more recent fans like Mark Knopfler. Atkins' guitar was an influence on country players as well, as was the Nashville Sound he pioneered as a producer and label head at RCA.

As a sextet, Little Texas had eighteen country hits throughout the '90s, their greatest success coming in the first half of the decade. The group's first run ended with 1997's "Little Texas" and was followed a seven-year hiatus. They reappeared in 2004 with Steven Troy replacing Tim Rushlow on vocals, and returned to touring. Troy left in 2006 and lead guitarist (and founding group member) Porter Howell stepped up to the microphone. Now operating as a quartet, with Howell joined by fellow founders Dwayne O'Brien on vocals and guitar, Duane Propes on vocals and bass, and Del Gray on drums, they've cut their first album in a decade.

Howell's an appealing lead vocalist, singing with a huskiness and geniality that brings to mind Jack Ingram. He's a winning center point for harmonies that are not as beholden to the Eagles as the band's earlier work. The instrumental sound is also a touch more modern, dropping the processed guitars of the '90s in favor of a twangier contemporary country sound. Generous amounts of steel and mandolin give this a rootsier feel than the band's previous albums.

Even with the changes, this still sounds like a Little Texas album. Howell and O'Brien continue to write, and outside songwriters chip in material that suits the band well. The country-blues stompers "Gotta Get Me Down Home" and "Party Life," though a bit late to redneck goodtime party scene, are great vehicles for Howell's soulful voice. The name-checking swing of "Texas 101" could easily serve as the basis for a popular CMT video or fan sing-a-along written concert favorite.

The partying stops for several fine ballads, including the retrospective "So Long" with its study of spouses grown apart, friends passed away, and relationships scattered to the winds of time. The sentiment's flipside, "When He's Gone," is too morose for a bride's first dance with her father, but it's a sweet ode to dads everywhere. The title track's return-to-home travelogue is reminiscent of Tim McGraw's "Everywhere," but the happier ending provides less of an emotional wallop.

After a decade away from the studio, Little Texas manages the neat trick of still sounding like Little Texas without sounding trapped in the past. They've got the musical goods for another run at the charts, but only the vagaries of country radio can make that final determination. Either way, the band's fans should like this updated sound, and contemporary country listeners will find these '90s superstars appealing. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

These forty-five pieces were originally produced by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's John McEuen as a soundtrack for the like-named documentary series. The mosaic of 19th century American music includes homemade folk, western themes, Native American chants, brass bands, military bugle calls, and filmic orchestrations that reflect the immigrant-fed melting pot. The stories and legends of the songs' lyrics served as a keepsake for settlers as they ranged across the continent, and retain their potency as a conduit between yesteryear and today. Today's long-range nostalgia of "Home on the Range" was ever more immediate to explorers who'd just left their home range to venture into the wilds.

McEuen gathered country and cowboy musicians (including Marty Stuart, Gary Morris, Michael Martin Murphy and Rod Steagall) together with bands that specialize in recreating nineteenth-century American music. They weave together the musical and instrumental influences of America's immigrant forebears, intertwining Irish, German, Italian and gypsy sounds with uniquely American creations such as the Sousaphone and hammered dulcimer. The songs of the West were brash and adventurous in proclaiming freedom in a new home but leavened by a longing for places and loved-ones left behind.

Music was a central element of Western life, whether sung on a hand-hewn back porch, plucked trailside on guitar, performed in a town square, made bawdy in a saloon, or revved up to energize troops on the charge. American song of the nineteenth century encapsulated entertainment, tradition, news and faith; curiously, the soundtrack doesn't include any church songs. Still, this is an enterprising project that provides a unique, musical view of the American west. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

The lengthy artistic collaboration between country singer Bobby Bare and author/poet/cartoonist/songwriter Shel Silverstein began in earnest with this 1973 LP. At the time, Bare had been regularly charting country hits for fifteen years, and Silverstein had found great success as a songwriter with the Irish Rovers (1968's "The Unicorn") Johnny Cash (1969's "A Boy Named Sue"), Loretta Lynn (1971's "One's on the Way"), and Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (1972's "Sylvia's Mother"). Bare himself covered "Sylvia's Mothers" and rode it to #12 on the country chart and subsequently invited Silverstein to write him a theme album. Bare self produced the album in the Spring of 1973.

Silverstein's witty, humorous and ultimately affectionate songs found a terrific interpreter in Bare. As a singer who could be arch and coy at the same time, Bare explored both the warmth and tongue-in-cheek nature of Silverstein's works. Recorded in-studio in front of a small group of family and friends, Bare's spoken word introductions and the audience's laughter provides continuity between tall tales of Paul Bunyan, voodoo, magic, swamps, bikers and robots. The album's hits include the tale of a New Orleans voodoo queen, "Marie Lavaux," a duet with Bare's then five-year old son Bobby Jr., "Daddy What If," and a bluesy tune of brawling, "The Winner."

RCA Legacy's reissue adds a second disc that includes Bare's earlier version of "Sylvia's Mother," which isn't nearly as bombastic as the Silverstein-produced version by Dr. Hook, and a sampling from the next eight years of Bare/Silverstein collaborations on RCA and Columbia. Highlights include the children's chorus accompanying "Singin' in the Kitchen," the ironic prophesy of "Brian Hennessey," and the touchingly sad, "This Guitar Is For Sale." There are bank robberies, marriages and paroles gone awry, a eulogy, and a male chauvinist's comeuppance among songs drawn from seven different Bare albums of the '70s and '80s.

Bare's in great form throughout, spinning yarns with a smile and a hint that there's some truth to be found amid the fanciful stories. Silverstein found other singers to connect with his material, but never anyone who connected so fully or for so long as Bare. The double CD set is housed in a tri-fold digipack with a 24-page booklet that includes the original liner and song notes, a new essay by Rich Kienzle and over a dozen photos. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

Pam Tillis "Just in Time For Christmas" (Stellar Cat)

Tillis set out to record the sort of Christmas record that she'd play at her own home, one that's put on "when you cook for company, while you trim the tree, while you're wrapping presents, while you look through old photo albums with old friends." And in that she's succeeded, nestling her mostly secular selections amidst a trio of acoustic bass, piano and drums. The album opens and closes with drowsy late-night arrangements of "Have Yourself a Merry Lil' Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas," the latter adding superb Manhattan Transfer styled background harmonies. The album's three new songs include the imagery rich "Beautiful Night" and the Spanish guitar of "Light of the World." The tempo's turned up to a western swing canter for a medley of "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" that features Tillis and her father Mel singing in duet. Her second medley, combining "I Wonder as I Wander," "Away in a Manger," and "Silent Night" is sung spiritually and gives the album its deepest moment of Christian faith. The album's real treat is a cover of Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper," a top-20 hit for Roy Orbison in 1963. Tillis has always shown herself to be a great singer, but with the crying steel of a vintage Nashville arrangement behind her, she turns into a heartbreakingly sentimental storyteller. The Nashville A-listers add warmth with live backing tracks that are easily imagined in an intimate club setting. It's comfort and familiarity which makes this a terrific disc to slip into your CD player while you enjoy holiday activities. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

Buy the album: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000TJ6BM8/ecnadmedia-20

Originally issued in 1992 on the Step One label as "Memories That Last," these tracks represent the only duets on record by two country superstars known for their transitions from honky-tonk to pop. By the early 90s, Price's recording career was mostly given over to live performance in Branson, and Young's 40-year run of hits had wound down. Though Young was stricken with a career-ending case of emphysema a couple of years after these sessions, it's not evidenced here. Both he and Price were still in good voice, and if not as creative or imaginative as earlier in their careers, still engaged by the songs and each other.

Accompanied by Nashville A-listers like Buddy Emmons on pedal steel and Jimmy Capps on guitar, Price and Young stuck mostly to the pop balladry of their later careers, dipping into the canons of Dean Martin ("Everybody Love Somebody" and "Side By Side"), Nat "King" Cole ("Somewhere Along the Way," "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" and "When I Fall in Love"), and generally staying in the middle of the road. When the singers turned to material from Hank Williams Sr. ("Cold, Cold Heart" and "Mansion on the Hill") and Willie Nelson ("Funny How Time Slips Away"), there was a sense of the innovation they'd found earlier in crossing pop influences into country music: the strings dropped away, Emmons' steel guitar cried and the two-step rhythms provided contrast to the crooned vocals. The playful rivalry of "Too Big to Fight" and wistful memories of "Whole Lot of You" also found a nice balance between country sentimentality and pop style.

Varese's CD reissue adds four bonus tracks taken from individual Step One albums on which the artists re-recorded their earlier hits. These don't really compare to the originals, and they're lacking the novelty of the duets. The original album is sufficiently unique to merit a spin, but in the twilight of their recording careers, neither artist was the powerhouse they'd once been. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]