Ralph McLean - Country

Last Of The Breed is the very appropriate title of a new album on Lost Highway Records that brings Merle Haggard together in the studio with Willie Nelson and Ray Price and the results are genuinely stunning.  Over two brilliant CD's the three men get together and run through some of their favourite songs with the kind of passion and time honed skill you just don't hear too often in Nashville today.  The choice of songs is telling as names like Lefty Frizzell, Gene Autry and Floyd Tillman keep cropping up in the credits.  This is old time country played the way it used to be in the honky tonks and music bars of these men's youth.  Tunes like Lost Highway, a Leon Payne number made famous by Hank Williams, and Harlon Howard's timeless Pick Me Up On Your Way Down need no introduction to country music fans but far from trotting out familiar cover versions these takes are heartfelt and passionate.  This is music made by true country fans for true country music fans.