Two great tastes that go great together

I'm issuing a plea for the return of the duet.

It's not a genre that ever went away, exactly, but it seems to have reached a peak in the day of, say, Sinatra, and then waned from there. Plenty of modern CDs have the odd duet sneaked in -- maybe one track out of 13 -- but a whole album of duets is all too rare, I think.

What is it about duets, anyway? In some cases, it's the thrill of having two artists you never pictured working together ... working together. In many cases, it's amazing harmonies -- voices that seem just made to sing together -- and the added emotion that can come from two voices singing about a subject (Yeah yeah, usually love. Or, perhaps more accurately, heartache -- we ARE talking about Americana music here, right?) from both sides of the coin.

Here are some of my favorite duet discs, to be followed next week by a wish list (so start thinking of yours!):

FAVORITES:

** JOHN PRINE/In Spite of Ourselves -- an old-skool style duet album that in my opinion got a lot less hype than it deserved when it was released in 1999. John Prine sings with a huge range of artists, including Lucinda Williams, Iris Dement and Emmylou Harris. These are actual duets -- not just a "featured harmony singer." Exactly what I wish we could get a little more of. Most of the songs are oldies but goodies -- songwriting credits include Hank Williams, Don Everly and Jack Clement. But these aren't covers of songs you've heard a million times. The writing is classic, but to me the songs were new. Mr. Prine himself writes in the liner notes of this one: "There's something about two people singing to each other or about each other and finally with each other that sounds really good to me." Right on, brother.

** CHIP TAYLOR and CARRIE RODRIGUEZ/Let's Leave This Town -- The first of three records from this surprising pairing. He wrote "Wild Thing" and is Angelina Jolie's uncle. Which has nothing to do with anything but I just thought I'd work "Angelina Jolie" into this post so Hickory Wind would get 10,000 more hits a day. Carrie is a young fiddle player with a high, sweet voice that also can carry a lot of sass, which I love. The surprising way their very different voices fit together is the first delight of this CD, but the songwriting and instrument playing doesn't disappoint, either. Listen to the title track if you don't believe me, O ye of little faith.

** VARIOUS ARTISTS/Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons -- It's not actually designed as a duet CD, but six of the 13 tracks offer some pretty bizarre -- and pretty excellent -- pairings. Beck and Emmylou Harris? Hell yeah, it's one of the best tracks on the album, in my opinion, and is done in true duet fashion. Then there's Lucinda Williams and David Crosby (more straight harmony pairing, though), Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield, and Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris (again, more a harmony thing). That's the beautiful thing about tribute CDs and the like -- you can take risks and mix and match artists, usually to really great effect.

** STEVE EARLE and THE DEL MCCOURY BAND/The Mountain -- Not only a pairing of great voices, but also one of the best examples I know of of what happens when gritty back-highway Americana meets traditional bluegrass. Good things, I tell you. Good. Things. Steve Earle wrote the songs, and he obviously did his homework. It all works so well that it actually sounds natural -- natural, I tell you! -- to hear Steve's gritty, um, you know, Steve voice with Del's smooth high tenor. A delightful bonus on this CD is a duet with vocals by Steve and Iris Dement on "I'm Still in Love With You," which, if I'm ever in Raleigh, I will force the Right Turn Clydes to learn and let me sing with them. I hoped and hoped there would be another Steve Earle/Del McCoury CD one day, but apparently it is not to be. Way I heard it, Del and the boys and Steve parted ways on not-so-friendly terms. Aw peas.

** CAITLIN CARY and THAD COCKRELL/Begonias -- This one's so new I haven't had time for more than one or two proper listens, but I can already tell it's good. It's a little more harmonyish and a little less real duetish than I was hoping for, but man, you can't complain about harmony when these two are involved, and both get plenty of time to shine.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

** KELLY WILLIS and BRUCE ROBISON -- They perform sometimes as a duet act (I speak of Merlefest) and are just wonderful together, with that husband/wife thang they have going. They appear all over each other's CDs, both on vocals and in songwriting credits. So just put out a duet album already, will ya? They do have at least one recorded for-real duet: "Angry All The Time," on his "Wrapped" CD and also a live CD called "Unleashed" with Robison, brother Charlie Robison and Jack Ingram. I think this song, written by Bruce, might be one of my favorite duet songs of all the time. The lyrics are seriously heavy, just cut right through you, and the melody matches perfectly. SIDE NOTE: In researching which Bruce Robison albums (I knew there were two) this song is on, I made the horrifying discovery that Tim McGraw covered it. And yes, dear reader, for you I underwent the torture of listening to it. OK, just the 30-second snippet on iTunes, but still! It was enough to know that it is mind-meltingly horrible. So be careful. DO check out this song if you haven't heard it. But DON'T mess up and listen to the Tim McGraw version, or you'll die of pain.

** RAUL MALO and TRISHA YEARWOOD/Something Stupid -- Tacked onto the end of "Music for All Occasions," this cover preserves the old-skool feel of Frank Sinatra's original but manages to stay uncheesy. Raul and Trisha both have powerful voices, but they seem really conscious on this recording of the beauty of give-and-take, of taking your turn in the spotlight but also giving your partner some time to shine. Instead of each of them belting it out in choruses, they form a collective and equal belting-out that has a really fun effect.

** LYLE LOVETT and EMMYLOU HARRIS/Walk Through the Bottomland -- OK, I'm just going to go ahead and ruin my next post by telling you that Lyle is going to top my wish list for artists who MUST put out duet CDs for me to go on living. He has sung special harmony deals with Rickie Lee Jones, Alison Krauss and, more than once, Emmylou Harris. "Bottomland" is a little more of a traditional duet, where both take verses alone. Not that Emmylou really sounds bad with anyone, but her voice and Lyle's really work well together. I must have more. While I'm on the subject of Lyle (Oh, now you've done it! You've gotten me started!), he does a duet with Shawn Colvin on her song "The Facts about Jimmy" that's just awesome.

So c'mon, Americana. If Nelly and Tim McGraw can do a duet and not get laughed at (OK, well I'm laughing at it, but I won't laugh at you!), you know you can do it. Pretty much every musical tradition on which Americana is based -- blues, bluegrass, old-time, front-porch jams to name a few -- stems from two (or more) people getting together and trying new things together. So share the love -- and we'll buy the CDs.