“Standard Songs for Average People,” the collaboration between folk hero John Prine and legendary bluegrass crooner Mac Wiseman, is the product of a collective century of recording and performing experience. Prine and Wiseman had not met prior to the sessions for the album, but they certainly shared a common interest in music; when Prine suggested to Wiseman that they each create a list of potential songs to record, the two icons found that they had each listed seven of the same tunes. The album revisits an age when country music was less about pick-up trucks and big belt buckles and more about lap steel and two steppin’. Prine and Wiseman swap vocals on tunes written by country legend Ernest Tubb, Texas swing king Bob Wills, and Kris Kristopherson, among others. Neither standard nor average, Prine and Wiseman go far in proving that there is still life in the vintage country sounds of yesteryear.
<BR><em>-Dave Stallard</em>
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