Grab the Kleenex…
Alison Krauss and Jamey Johnson… two of the best voices country music has ever seen.
During the 2015 Gershwin Prize Tribute Concert in Washington, D.C. (where the great Willie Nelson received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song), Alison Krauss and Jamey Johnson took the stage to perform a duet of the 1984 classic “Seven Spanish Angels.”
Written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, “Seven Spanish Angels” was recorded by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles in 1984, and released on Charles’ album Friendship, and then later included on Willie’s 1985 duets compilation album, Half Nelson.
Willie was of course sitting in the audience, and he had all he could do to fight back the tears during the moving performance.
I mean, Willie, Jamey, Alison… it just doesn’t get much better, does it?
Check it out:
Jamey Johnson Performs Powerful New Song “21 Guns” About An “Old Friend In The Marine Corps”
Any true country music fan knows that Jamey Johnson is one of the best in the business.
However, since Johnson released his 2010 album The Guitar Song, we’ve been patiently waiting… and waiting… and waiting for some new music from the man who brought us arguably the greatest country album of the 2000s, That Lonesome Song back in 2008.
A few years ago, Johnson’s steel guitar player, “Cowboy” Eddie Long, got all our hopes up by teasing a new album, which he said would feature the Charlie Daniels classic, “Trudy.” Unfortunately, Johnson shot that rumor down immediately, saying it was news to him (which I am a bit confused… how does somebody in your band get the wrong idea? Oh well).
However since then, Johnson has been relatively lowkey. Don’t get me wrong, he still tours and performs, and he’s been featured on a number of songs as a guest, but the new Jamey Johnson album fans have been hoping for just hasn’t materialized.
Last summer, Jamey reignited that hope of some new music on the way, when he debuted a brand new song in Oklahoma, and then performed it again at The Big Sky Festival in Whitefish, Montana.
Johnson even admitted that he doesn’t play new songs very often:
“I don’t do new songs very often, but I wrote this one a couple of weeks ago… it’s about an old friend of mine in the Marine Corps.”
With only him and an acoustic guitar, the Marine vet himself sang about a fallen soldier, which appears to be titled “21 Guns.”
Here’s a look at the chorus:
“And I don’t need no one to tell me you’re a hero
Hell, I’ve known that ever since you were young
There are no words to say how proud we all are of you son
Nothing says job well done like 21 guns…”
Check it out his performance of the song, along with a few others in Oklahoma:
Chris Stapleton & Dwight Yoakam Cover “Seven Spanish Angels”
Taking back to the 2016 when Chris Stapleton teamed up with the great Dwight Yoakam for a cover of Willie Nelson and Ray Charles’ “Seven Spanish Angels.”
Written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, “Seven Spanish Angels” was recorded by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles in 1984, and released on Charles’ album Friendship, and then later included on Willie’s 1985 duets compilation album, Half Nelson.
It was the most successful of Ray’s eight hits on the country chart, as the single spent one week #1 one and a total of twelve weeks on the country chart.
And alongside the angelic Morgane Stapleton, they KILLED it.
Dwight recently joined Chris on select dates during his All-American Roadshow Tour this summer.
