Your Take: Visionary Collaborations

Nick Cave and Hank III
Neko Case and Dale Watson
Tool and Steve Earle
Te Drive By Truckers and the Replacements

In an interview Blake Shelton said the one new female country singer he’d most like to do a duet with was Ashley Monroe, who is also one of Miranda Lambert’s best friends. Because both Blake and Ashley have strong traditional country sensibilities, I think their duets would potentially be a wonderful thing.

Jamey Johnson recorded a fine duet with Catherine Britt on a traditional heartbreaker titled “With This Ring (I Thee Unwed)” which was sadly never released. I would have gladly paid for an entire album of duets from those two. Matching Jamey up with Ashton Shepherd would be a stroke of genius, sort of a Conway and Loretta for the new century. And how about Sarah Buxton with, well anyone as long as it got her back on the radio…..

Paul, I didn’t suggest that all the artists were stars and my bad for insinuating that Dolly was established. I like the Dale Watson and Lee Ann Womack pairing quite a bit.

Rick, doesn’t Blake like the 80’s country with all the weird stuff going on? No matter, I think a Blake/Ashely duet would be cool. Now I gotta go find the Jamey Johnson/Catherine Britt duet, it sounds like it oughta be good.

Kelly, I was enjoying the comments ’till I read yours. You’re bannneedddd…

Gary Allan and Shelby Lynne

Matt, that pairing sounds like it could go somewhere. Is George Jones voice still up for it?

Mike, I didn’t care for Shelby Lynn’s latest album at all, but they could be interesting together.

Rick, here’s the article I was remembering about the 80’s stuff. It’s the third question where he’s talking about synthesizers. I haven’t really gotten into Jeff Bates, but the duet between Elizabeth Cook and Bobby Bare, Jr. last year was great. I missed a Sunny Sweeney & Corb Lund show last month and I’m kickin’ myself over it, but pairing her up with Wayne Hancock would be pretty sweet.

Keep all the great ideas comin’, except for you, Kelly.

First I have to say that I was beyond excited for the release of the Reba Duets CD because honestly who doesn’t love a good duet? And was so disappointed with the song selections. It had such promise and it felt like they hurriedly put it together and didn’t even try and aim for some decent music & lyrics.

Second, I love the idea of Ashley Monroe & Blake Shelton. Basically because I love Ashley Monroe. Does anyone know if she is ever going to release her album? I feel like it will never see the light of day… So sad.

Now to my dream duet which I have narrowed down to:
Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert
Keith Urban and Martina McBride

I would also love for Faith & Tim to do another duet with a more serious undertone like that of “Angry All the Time” and “Like We Never Loved At All”

ok, being serious now. i have really enjoyed the jesse dayton/brennen leigh duet album. while they arent a nationally recognized pairing, jesse is quite the star in many parts of the southwest and you could say that his featuring leigh is his version (i stress his as a smaller version) of Porter introducing the newcomer Dolly to a certain crowd .

How about:

-Dale Watson w/Sunny Sweeney
-James Hand w/Wayne Hancock

Brady, I don’t know if his voice is up to it. It’s still passable on his recent Merle Haggard duets album, though that was a good two years ago and George’s decline might be more glaring against Patty Loveless’ voice. I will say that George’s strength has never been his technical ability, so that even in concert - I’ve seen him twice in the past year - he doesn’t sound half bad most of the time. It’s probably one of those things where they’d just have to cut a few tracks and see what happens, though the sooner the better as far as George’s voice is concerned.

Yes, regarding the Gram & Emmylou pairing, now that she is in the CMHOF, maybe Gram stands a chance??
sign up here!

http://www.gramparsonspetition.com

I’d like that Garth and Trisha album to be recorded, though I’ll need something more inspiring than “In Another’s Eyes.”

A Vince and Alison bluegrass album would be cool.

A George Jones and Patty Loveless album would be great. George’s voice has always sounded old, even when he was young. For awhile, I thought that his voice got better as he aged, because the old quality was being more perfected. Now, however, I started noticing that it’s not working in his favor as much these days, even as far back as his “The Blues Man” duet with Dolly Parton.

A Merle Haggard and Clint Black project would be fun too.

And I really like the idea of Dierks and Miranda!

Dale Watson and Merle Haggard should be as good as the great Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakum duets.

One of my favorite duets is Lee Ann Womack and George Strait — and I also like Ashley Monroe with Dwight (better than with Ronnie Dunn)

Thanks, CCF, I’ll check ‘em out. What I love about them, and especially Hand, is that there is true life experience and pain to augment the twang that truly relates feeling and not just a sound.

How cool would it be to year “Yesterday’s Wine” done by those two???

Wow yesterday’s wine it give me chills thinking about it. The other artist Billy Don he has a song called Dark side of the spoon he also wrote it It really nails what it would be like addicted to Heroin with a line like

“He rides through the night on a lost highway through a hole he made in his vein to a plastic place where desperate die on a dirty street called shame. “

Sorry for ignoring you, Kelly, we don’t all have cushy jobs that allow us to slack off ;) Dale Watson & Sunny Sweeney could probably come up with something good between them. The James Hand/Wayne Hancock would probably only appeal to hardcore fans. I like both guys alright, but it’d have to be exceptional music to get me excited. As for Miranda & Ashton, it might be kinda cool for the Texas/Alabama deep south/good local music thing going on, but a Miranda & Ashley Monroe duet would be just as interesting. Good suggestions.

Matt, I’m hoping to catch George Jones for the first time next month at the rodeo here in Austin, so I guess I’ll find out whether or not his voice is up to snuff.

It’s interesting that everyone here would prefer to see traditional pairings and we haven’t seen any multi-artist suggestions ala The Highwaymen.

Thanks Brady, sometimes a brutha just needs a little positive reinforcement and hey, I love having a job where i can slack off and feel bad for those of you that dont, but there does seem to be a lot of commenting going on during the day ;)….

ARTISTS I’D LIKE TO DO A DUET WITH:
Garth Brooks - The guy is just my hero, plain and simple. He knew the difference between being traditional and being boring. He was able to combine neotraditional country with fun. My MySpace songs are my leftovers, I’m saving my best songs because I was advised to by a friend. But I’d still look like a second grader standing next to Garth.

Taylor Swift - Based on age similarity and style. This would be a fun song for me personally, I’m a huge Taylor fan.

ARTIST I’D LIKE TO SEE DO DUETS TOGETHER:
Keith Whitley (if he was still here) & Tracy Lawrence - Their voices would be amazing together. Maybe two guys going for one girl, a song about a friend passing (one singing as the passed friend and the other as the best friend), or who cares… just a duet would be amazing!

Tracy Byrd & Clint Black - A song by these two guys would be a good time on a disc! Imagine at a concert. Guest appearance by Neal McCoy maybe?

Dierks Bentley & Carrie Underwood - They could have one of those cool/mysterious broken-up boyfriend/girlfriend love songs. The video would probably be pretty nifty too!

Josh Turner & Randy Travis - Come on, this one is obvious. It would be HUGE at radio.

Brooks & Dunn & Alan Jackson - I’d pay a million dollars to hear a really great duet. That is, if I had a million dollars.

I HAVE to see Dolly and Kenny sing Islands In The Stream live, that’s a goal.

I love that video, I’ve wathed that Crossroads SO many times. I think they should record something as a single!

Your Strait/Brooks collaboration reminded me of an article I linked to the other day.

“My God,” an admiring young Garth Brooks once told Farrell while watching [George Strait] offstage during a 1989 or 1990 show. “I have seen men who were self-contained, but he goes too far.”

Roger Miller and Todd Snider

Carrie underwood, Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler should all do a song together. It would me amazing if they all went out on concert together.