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| It�s really nice to know that some musicians are dedicated to preserving their own musical roots as well as the various offshoots of them. This collaboration by these famous crooners (of not only country music) is a prime example. Willie Nelson has experienced long-running success as a renegade solo performer over the last few decades, including a 2000 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His autobiography is amusingly entitled "The Facts of Life and Other Dirty Jokes". On this CD, he teams up again with his former �boss�, Ray Price, for whose band, The Cherokee Cowboys, Willie played bass guitar way back when. On "Run That By Me One More Time" (the quintessential cheatin� song), this duo continue to pay tribute to the heroes that preceded them, e.g. Bob Wills, credited for the creation of the Western Swing sound, and Fred Rose, both enormously successful country music composers whose songs have also been covered by the likes of Hank Williams and Dolly Parton. Curiously, the gospel-tinged opening track, �Deep Water�, is attributed to Fred Rose on the CD, but it appears on an anthology CD of Bob Wills music. Willie and Ray co-produced this collection of mostly tear-jerkin�, self-pitying country waltzes, the exceptions being the reelin� Foster/Hancock/Lambert title track about cheating and the country rag, �I�ll Keep on Loving You� (by Richard Coburn and Vincent Rose). Both of these tracks would have been better as CD closers, to end it on a more optimistic note. It�s a testament to the vocal style of both Ray and Willie that the CD generally retains a light sentimentality without becoming fodder for a beer-drowning episode. Fans of the genre, especially those who loved the previous collaboration, San Antonio Rose, will find it absolutely irresistible in its pared-down musical simplicity, especially considering that there are six instrumentalists adding to the sound, including the perfect rhythm section of David Zettner on bass, Freddy Calderone on drums and Joe Gracey on rhythm guitar. Gabe Rhodes (son of country music performer Kimmie Rhodes) also contributes on guitar. Kimmie Rhodes, David Zettner and Johnny Bush (Cherokee Cowboys) played with Willie in his �60s band, The Offenders, so their musical quilt continues to be woven. I would dedicate the fifth track, �It Wouldn�t Be the Same Without You� (Fred Rose/Jimmy Wakely), to David Zettner, who also mans a pedal steel guitar, and Bobby Floores, on fiddle, as their contributions, in particular, typify the authenticity of the Grand Ol� Opry sound. Speaking of which, Ray Price, still an attractive man in his �70s, made a live appearance on CMT�s �Grand Ol� Opry Live� TV show on August 7/03. Looking at pictures of him, I�d have to say he definitely fits right into that mould of �glamorous cowboy singers�, as did Bob Wills, Fred Rose and Gene Autry. Ray has also released his own CDs, including, most recently, Prisoner of Love and Time. |
| RUN THAT BY ME ONE MORE TIME - WILLIE (NELSON) & RAY (PRICE) |
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