Though Jones has sung duets throughout his career, most notably with Tammy Wynette, his reputation as one of the singularly great country voices generally overshadows his partner work. This 1979 release set out to highlight how well he could intertwine his voice with another's, and showed that he could partner as smoothly with a male singer as he had with females. Perhaps it's the heavyweight talent with which he consorts (Waylon, Willie, Emmylou, Tammy, et al.), but as terrific as is his voice, his ability to amplify the greatness of his partners is equally impressive. There's no mistaking Jones' star, but he's a generous partner who sings harmony and lays out on his partners' verses; he's able to retain his uniqueness even as he adjusts to a second voice.

The drowsy tempo taken to Willie Nelson's "Nightlife," gives Jones and Waylon Jennings an opportunity to show their chops as country-blues singers. Whether or not they actually stood in a studio and recorded together (many of these tracks were tape duets rather than in-studio collaborations), the result feels like a conversation. The duet with Willie Nelson finds Jones charging straight ahead while Nelson typically floats ahead and behind the beat. The resulting vocal syncopation is furthered by the light scuff Jones adds to his normally rounder tone, recounting his early honky-tonk sides and matching Nelson's edgier sound. Jones trades verses with Elvis Costello for the latter's terrific "Stranger in the House," with Costello showing off the wonderful nuances in his voice. Emmylou Harris' high, fragile voice provides superb balance to Jones lower tones on "Here We Are," but Linda Ronstadt's belted west coast country overshadows Jones in their shared passages.. Closing the original LP is a collaboration with Pops and Mavis Staples that inventively meshes the latter's gospel-pop with a commercial country sound.

Sony's 2005 2-CD reissue nearly quadrupled the original ten duets with twenty-seven more tracks drawn from the original 1979 sessions and cherry-pick from Jones' albums of the 1980s and 1990s. Jones finds resonance with nearly everyone, but especially enjoyable are Janie Fricke on "All I Want to Do In Life," the high-lonesome pairing with Ralph Stanley on "Wonderful World Outside," and Patty Loveless' brilliance on "You Don't Seem to Miss Me." Jones' woeful harmony on the latter is breathtaking, making this one of the very best duets of both their careers. Charlie Daniels provides the response to Jones' call on the Cajun inflected "Fiddle and Guitar Band," the novelty "We Didn't See a Thing" gives Jones a chance to muse with Ray Charles and Chet Atkins, and Vince Gill matches Jones syllable for syllable on the chorus of a superbly rendered, twangy shuffle of "The Love Bug." Added tracks by Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt and others show the primal influence Jones had on subsequent generations of country singers.

What keeps these sessions from being legendary is their factory origins. Jones doesn't sound artistically engaged, and though the voices intertwine on tape, you quickly get the feeling there wasn't an opportunity for many of the singers to engage artistically. The arrangements and production are by-the-books Nashville, the players studio rehearsed, and the results are indistinct and tepid. There are some quality tracks here, and even a few moving performances, but this doesn't represent Jones' best (or most committed) work as a duettist. The recently issued "40 Years of Duets" is shorter but broader in time, and gives a look at more of Jones' classic duets. 3-3/4 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]

I bought this double CD used. Nowhere does anyone address the issue of the copy protection software on the two discs. When I attempted to burn these discs into ITunes, the software would not allow it. The software requires that you download using its own player, in WMA format, and in the lowest quality, at that. There is a link to the Sony BMG website which explains that you can download the songs, burn an interim CD, and then download THAT disc into ITunes. This is not only stupid it is venal and despicable, since you are not informed in advance of the copy protection. I gave up on it, and I will simply throw it away, since I cannot put the songs on my IPod. BE WARNED.

While i love this album and mostly agree with the review that immediately precedes this one, as an Elvis Costello fan i felt the need to make one correction. The song "Stranger in the House" was not written for this album. It existed as the B side of a 45 (the A side was Neat, Neat, Neat) long before it was rerecorded for this wondeful album. Other than that small factoid, i agree with the reviewer and recommend that everyone buy this Cd as it is a great effort from a true legend that features top notch performances from all involved.

everyone who follows George's career knows how bad his personal life got during 1976-1982. This CD sounds like a wild drinking/drugs party circa 1979 with the likes of Waylon, Willie, PayCheck, Dennis and Ray, Linda, Emmylou, and Elvis Costello, among others. The songs create that party atmosphere (ironically the CD ends with the gospel song, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", with the Staples singers) and even ex-wife Tammy shows up for "It Sure Was Good". Every song was over-dubbed. George sang his part and his duet partners would come in later and record their lines and Billy Sherrill and company would splice it together for the duet. The fact that you can't tell the material isn't "live" and on the spot is a testament to the CD age. This album inspired the infamous TV special "George Jones: With a Little Help from My Friends" that HBO aired in 1980. One can't help but ask why his 1978 hit, "Bartenders Blues" with James Taylor harmony, was included on this album? None of the other nine duets were released as singles by the way. "Proud Mary" with Johnny PayCheck was a follow-up to their rowdy remake of "Mabelline" in late 1978 and by 1980 George and Johnny released a duet album.