One sheet: “When I was 18, I was on the road with my dad. One day, we were sitting in the tour bus, talking about songs, and he mentioned a song, and I said, ‘I don’t know that one’. He mentioned another one, and I said, ‘I don’t know that one, either.’ Then he started to get alarmed, so he spent the rest of the day making a list on a legal pad and at the top he put ‘100 Essential Country Songs.’ And he handed it to me and said, ‘This is your education’.”

Covers by Johnny’s daughter. A few famous males join in for duets. Nuff sed (beside, this is really really good; play with Neko Case, Eleni Mandell, your other alt and not so alt country faves).

1) lovely mellow Texas swing feel, about “growing tired of the city… missing the Mississippi (and you)”, perfect
2) country blues swing with a sad theme and an edge
3) upbeat familiar cover with Bruce Springsteen dueting, if subdued until he takes a line and sound more like friggen Waylon Jennings than “the boss”
4) “Take These Chains”, narcotic texas swing but with a strange looping near noise in the sound bed if you listen close! Wtf? Are hipsters involved? I love it!!!
5) dark and bluesy
6) eh, sorry missy but Ray Price’s wailing cant be matched on this cover of “heartaches…” despite (because?) Elvis Costello, and the tepid new country sound bed
7) pleasant romantic new country
8) Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) appears on this version of the classic Long Black Veil, starts minimal and true to the orginal but then picks up a “typical” country feel that betrays the darkness of this song
9) Patsy Cline: she’s biting off a big chunk here and does just fine… very nice (even though the electric piano is a near insult to the classic tinklings so typical of C&W 1958-72)
10) lovely classic, with more of a mtn bluegrass feel, darker and romantic
11) Rufus Wainwright appears on this tepid cover
12) gospel feel, minimal showcase for her crystalline vocals, lovely, just guitar and fiddle and organ tones