The Rizdales' fave country duets

Writing about Tom and Tara Dunphy's classic-sounding male/female country duets on The Rizdales' fantastic new How The Marriage Ended! album left me wondering what their favourite recordings in the genre might be. So I asked Tom put together a top 10 list which you'll find below in no particular order...

"Here's our list. It's not necessarily a definitive top 10, but they're all songs we get a lot of enjoyment from. We've included some obvious classics – hey, they're classics for a reason – along with few recent duets that get us every time. And yes, I realize that they're not strictly male/female duets."                                                                                                           

Tom Dunphy, The Rizdales

                             

"When that list was being put together, Tom left out one of my favourites – Steve Earle and Iris DeMent's recording of I'm Still In Love With You from the album The Mountain. It's a classic!"

Tara O'Connor Dunphy, The Rizdales                                                                                                                

Holding On To Nothing - Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton






Loose Talk - Buck Owens and Rose Maddox


No One is Gonna Love You Better - Merle Haggard and Heather Myles



Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries - Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty



Sweet Thang - Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb


Say it's Not You - George Jones and Keith Richards


In Spite of Ourselves - John Prine and Iris DeMent


My Elusive Dreams - David Houston and Tammy Wynette




Take Me - George Jones and Tammy Wynette


We'll Sweep out the Ashes in the Morning - Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris

Rizdales record release party @ the Dakota tonight

photo by Jack Martin

When you think of great country male/female duets and images of Tim McGraw & Faith Hill, Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood or Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow come to mind, you're reading the wrong blog.
However, if instead you immediately thought of George & Tammy, Johnny & June, Porter & Dolly, Loretta & Conway or maybe even Merle & Bonnie and you haven't yet seen The Rizdales' talented husband and wife tandem of Tom and Tara Dunphy in action, then it's your lucky day.
London, Ontario's finest roots country combo are hosting a swingin' release party for their hot new recording How The Marriage Ended! tonight (Saturday, August 21) over at the Dakota Tavern with friends Luther Wright, Emily Fennell and Brian Connelly's rockin' instrumental rippers Ancient Chinese Secret ensuring a ruckus will be raised.

Even if the Music City brain trust believes the days of dual-gender duets are done, recent headlines suggest that people of every tax bracket are still prone to relationship problems so there may be interest in hearing sweetly harmonizing spouses musically navigating through their own marital minefields like they once did when hair was higher and suits were custom tailored in the colours of tropical fruits.
Unlike the vast majority of your favourite country stars past and present, the self-contained Rizdales unit compose, perform and record their own songs. So rather than simply remake the genre standards as others have done, they decided to try adding a few new pages to the break-up songbook. I'm pleased to report that  they've come up with some corkers for How The Marriage Ended! like The Last Time You Put Me Down and the cleverly cutting It's Not Me, It's You (not the Lily Allen number) which have the feel of jukebox faves which Capitol's Ken Nelson might've cut in Studio B in between sessions by Buck Owens, Faron Young, Wanda Jackson, Tommy Collins and Ferlin Husky.
That's not to say that the Rizdales tunes sound dated, not at all, more like timeless classics that will be sung and spun for years to come. In fact, the video-ready My New Wife's Kids off the new album could be Brad Paisley's next chart smash while Who Knows You is a Lady Antebellum radio staple waiting to happen if only their Nashville A&R reps had ears.
If you decide to head down to the Dakota to see the Rizdales tonight, be sure to bring along a little extra scratch for a copy of their self-released How The Marriage Ended! disc and you might want to grab a copy of their equally exceptional previous album Radio Country while it's still available.

LINKS
The Rizdales site http://www.rizdales.com/
myspace http://www.myspace.com/rizdales