Stars & Guitars

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An A-list of musically diverse acolytes surrounds the venerable country icon on this concert recording, which pays richer dividends than its studio-album predecessor, The Great Divide. Artists from Sheryl Crow to Norah Jones and Vince Gill to Keith Richards help celebrate one of the richest legacies in American music. Though some hit-and-miss is inevitable, the teaming with Richards, Ryan Adams, and Hank Williams III on "Dead Flowers" romps all over the Rolling Stones' original, while the duet with mentor Ray Price, who enjoyed an early hit with Nelson's "Night Life," shows a sense of history too often missing from such demographic-driven projects. Other highlights include the sweet-voiced balladry of Jones on "Lonestar" and a luminous rendition of "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" by Gill. As for the misfires: Adams and Nelson sound like they're in different keys on Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come"; Toby Keith isn't even a poor man's Waylon Jennings on "Good Hearted Woman"; and the very idea of Matchbox Twenty singing "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" is ludicrous. Even when the material and guest vocalists don't mesh, Nelson's guitar punctuation remains an understated (and underrated) delight. --Don McLeese

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