DAILEY & VINCENT Let's Sing Some Country (CD)

(BMG Rights) 11 tracks

Bluegrass has been their specialty and many gospel songs have been heard from them as well. This music brought Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent eight Grammys, four Dove Awards and 35 (!) awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Now Dailey & Vincent have chosen country songs, which they interpret with their own harmony singing. Darrin, by the way, is the brother of bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent.

For years, "I'll Leave My Heart In Tennessee" has been part of their live program, and now, with their producer Paul Worley (who has worked with Lady A, the Chicks, and Trave Adkins), they have turned it into the intro for their album. The declaration of love for Tennessee, written by Karen Staley, has recently been declared the official anthem of the state.

The other ten songs on the album are all about melody and vocal harmony. This is evident in the compositions of Vince Gill, who is represented three times. One hears "Colder Than Winter", a sustained ballad, Young Man's Town, the typical mid-tempo country song that tells a story with steel guitar and fiddle. Then for the even sadder ballad, If I Die Drinkin', which Gill wrote with Ashley Monroe, we almost have to get out the hanky and the steel guitar almost yelps on If I die singin' some ole lonesome song.

So ends the album, but not yet our review. For we would have one more version of a Steve Earle hit to mention. Hillbilly Highway tells the story of the migrant workers who drove from the rural areas of the South to Detroit to finally earn money. Steve Earle landed at number 37 on the country charts with the song in 1986. Even greater chart success was Alan O'Bryant's Those Memories Of You, only a limp #55 for Pam Tillis in 1986, and Top 10 a year later for the trio of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. And Dailey & Vincent actually succeed in giving the song their very own sound.

The Oak Ridge Boys sang their gospel-inspired Dig A Little Deeper In The Well and what our duo makes of it is extremely loud and entertaining. In contrast, Closer To You has lyrics and melody of a love song. The song was written by Jimmy Fortune, member of the Statler Brothers, whose songs Dailey & Vincent covered with a CD in 2010. Humor is not to be missed when it comes to Messages From The Farm. "Message From The Farm" amuses with the news about the animals, who also suffer from the departure of the farm wife.

Conclusion: The proof that they "can" also do country, Dailey & Vincent have delivered in a convincing manner, which, however, does not surprise us particularly, because the musical abilities of the duo have been known for a long time.