Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson
Every Song Tells A Story
(BMG)

The classic, live Johnny Cash song, “Folsom Prison Blues,” opens Every Song Tells A Story. It’s followed by Willie Nelson’s country twang on “Medley: Funny How Time Slips Away/Crazy/Night Life,” with sweet piano and harmonica, pretty much setting up how this 15-song collection flows…one song Cash, one Nelson, then the two legends singing together.

There’s the older “I Still Miss Someone” from Cash, with simple perfect “ohhs” and “ahhs” backing. Willie’s distinctive vocals are over that beautiful piano on “Always On My Mind,” the slightly corny “(Ghost) Riders In the Sky” is made passable with Johnny Cash’s low growl and then there’s Willie’s classic, “On The Road Again.”

From the first Highwayman album (Cash, Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings made this hit album back in 1985) we get Cash/Nelson duets like the sweet, slightly Mexican-sounding gospel of “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” although we do get a smidgen of Kristofferson singing the second verse. Finally, there’s the ballad, “Jim, I Wore A Tie Today,” “Committed to Parkview” and the poppy “The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over,”  with Cash in spectacular voice.

“The Human Condition” is an unreleased (until now) song from those sessions.