|
George Jones Album: “Jones Sings Haggard, Haggard Sings Jones: Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again”
| Album Information : |
|---|
| Title: |
Jones Sings Haggard, Haggard Sings Jones: Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again |
|
|
|
Release Date:2006-10-24
|
|
Type:Unknown
|
|
Genre:Modern Jazz
|
|
Label:Bandit
|
|
Explicit Lyrics:Yes
|
|
UPC:015707981620
|
Review - :
Twenty five years after their first duet album, {^A Taste of Yesterday's Wine}, {$George Jones} and {$Merle Haggard} teamed up again for 2006's {^Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again}. This time around, {$Merle} and {$George} each sing five songs originally recorded by the other, then team up for four full-fledged duets, including the title track, which chronicles the tales of an aging {\country} singer, a song clearly intended to appear somewhat autobiographical for these two legends. It's not the only time that their advanced age is addressed on the album; indeed, the closing rendition of {$Duke Ellington}'s {&"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"} plays with their senior citizenship (it also plays with their legends, too, with {$George} playfully reviving his duck voice for a fleeting moment too). It makes sense to address their age head-on: at the time of recording, {$Hag} was a year shy of 70 and {$George} was 75, and they no longer sound like spring chickens. Of the two, {$George} sounds a bit worse for wear -- his voice is a little thin and slightly scratchy -- but even if their age is evident on {^Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again}, the album also illustrates exactly why {$Jones} and {$Haggard} are two of the greatest vocalists in {\country} music history. They may cover each other's songs here, but they by no means replicate the other's performances. In {$George}'s hands, {&"I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink"} becomes bouncy and defiant, while {$Merle} brings out the weary humor in {&"Things Have Gone to Pieces,"} and when they're tackling such iconic hits as {&"The Race Is On"} or {&"All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers,"} they do so with gusto. Like on {^A Taste of Yesterday's Wine}, the duets are more respectful than dynamic, but there is a dose of spirited good humor to their reading of the {\Western swing} classic {&"Sick, Sober & Sorry"} and {&"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"} that is impossible not to find charming. And "charming" pretty much summarizes {^Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again} -- it may not be a late career masterwork, the way that {$Hag}'s {^If I Could Only Fly} was (or the way {$Jerry Lee Lewis}' {^Last Man Standing}, released a month prior to this, was), but it's hard not to be charmed by two old masters who still retain much of their magic after all these years. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
|
|
