Rhythm Country & Blues

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 1, 1994)
• Original Release Date: March 1, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca Nashville
• ASIN: B000002OR2
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,233 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #10 in Music > Pop > By Decade > 1990s
  • #17 in Music > R&B > Soul > Memphis Soul
  • #43 in Music > Country > Classic Country > Nashville Sound

Editorial Reviews

Nashville meets Memphis! This recording contains duets by the stars of R&B and country, including Vince Gill and Gladys Knight, Al Green and Lyle Lovett, Aaron Neville and Trisha Yearwood, Little Richard and Tanya Tucker, Clint Black and the Pointer Sisters and Natalie Cole and Reba McEntire.
Genre: Country & Western
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 1-MAR-1994

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked Gem, January 8, 2005

By 

Mark Blackburn (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rhythm Country & Blues (Audio CD)

Did you ever read a book -- then read it again ten years later, and make the pleasant discovery that the parts you'd mentally underlined or highlighted years earlier, are NOT the same ones that `reach' you today? Witness, if you will, this amazing concept album, you may have forgotten (I had, almost.)

If you are like me, you may have almost forgotten this gem. If you're like my sister Andrea (who has the most amazing singing voice I've ever heard) you've NEVER tasted of its amazing grace.

'Sis,' who has refined musical tastes, last night dignified my latest review (for a Tom T. Hall compilation) by sniffing: "YOU'RE listening to country music now?? Ouch!!!" I resisted the urge to remind `Anra' about Ray Charles' classic country music album of 40 years ago (with the definitive version of Eddy Arnold's "You Don't Know Me").

Her comment made me go and rummage out this CD. Sure enough, there there it was: something I'd vaguely recalled from the superb liner notes, by James Hunter. A short quotation of the album's co-producer Tony Brown, from the days when he first worked with Gospel singer Shirley Caesar: "She had ALWAYS loved country music!"

----

Back in late 1994 when this album was released, it was Chet Atkins' duet with Alain Toussaint (on the latter's best selling composition, "Southern Nights") that prompted me to track down this disc in the first place. I'm pleasantly surprised to find this very day that, some tracks I didn't give a second listen to, back then, are now at center stage in my heart: As with good spiritual reading, when the light goes on, I am `lifted up.'

First things first: Amazingly, most of the singers featured here had never met before they got together in the studio with co-producer Don Was. The producer(s) had to guess at which artists might have `chemistry' at their first time meeting.

In this firmament there are stars in ascension -- Trisha Yearwood & Aaron Neville singing "I Fall to Pieces." And others, perhaps in decline but still able to shine brightly as they `rise to the occasion' -- Sam Moore & Conway Twitty, in harmony and `sync' - for a "Rainy Night in Georgia."

Some pairings are timeless and shine as brightly as ever - Natalie Cole & Reba McEntire caressing Buddy Johnson's (blues band) beautiful chestnut from 1948, "Since I Fell for You." And Gladys Knight and Vince Gill agreeing that "There Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing."

Only one track here might underline (for someone like my sister) the difference between talent and kitsch; and it's literally "Something Else" by Little Richard & Tanya Tucker. But, hey --- ten out of eleven ain't bad!

Ten years on . . . and what's my new favorite? A four-leaf clover I managed to overlook before. Then-rising-star Marty Stuart conjures up magic with the heart of a Soul/Gospel band who hadn't had a hit in years - the Staple Singers, Mavis and `Pops'. Marty (a superb instrumentalist in his own right) elevates the introduction to Robbie Robertson's "The Weight" . . . . "I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' `bout half past dead' . . . and soon enough, Pops & Mavis seize control of the narrative, and the whole group (as James Hunter puts it, "rejoices throughout the chorus. These people are like pilgrims on the road . . . turning plain plights and shifting responsibilities into Gospel Good News."

`Anra,' my dear sister, you may never know what you missed.

Mark Blackburn
Winnipeg

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of Memphis meet the best of Nashville, November 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Rhythm Country & Blues (Audio CD)

I never paid much attention to country music until I heard this collection of duets. The best voices of R&B with the best of country. What stands out? Conway Twitty and Sam (Sam and Dave) Moore doing "Rainy Night in Georgia," and Aaron Neville with Trisha Yearwood on "I Fall to Pieces." Many other fine collaborations, but these are memorable.

For anyone who loves country and r&b standards, who wants to hear talented voices in new territory, or who wants a well-rounded musical education, this MAY be the best album you can find.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique collaborations performing great songs, June 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Rhythm Country & Blues (Audio CD)

Wonderful songs performed by artists from across racial and musical genre lines, reminds us how creativity can be enhanced when musicians make a conscious effort to break away from successful formulas and try something different. Lyle Lovett and Al Green's slow burn on "Funny How Time Slips Away" is the stand-out, but almost every track (exception -- Reba and Natalie Cole duet on "Since I Fell for You") is fun. Some, like Conway Twitty and Sam Moore's version of "Rainy Night in Georgia", underscore the common roots of country and r&b. This CD gets repeat listening at my house. n.b.--When this CD was released, the program director of Chicago's biggest country radio station was quoted in the Tribune as saying that he wouldn't give it airtime because too many people were trying to jump on the country bandwagon. This type of narrow thinking seems typical of the mainstream country music industry, and may explain why I've just about stopped listening to country radio.