My recommendation is to purchase the LP version of Sweet Memories, the new album from Vince Gill & Paul Franklin. Not only will the incredible wave of nostalgia for tried and true country music pail nicely with the act of placing a needle on vinyl, but it’s guaranteed that once the album is spinning on the turntable you won’t feel like skipping a single track. The album is a 10-year follow up to the duo’s rock solid Bakersfield, when country superstar Vince Gill and pedal steel master Paul Franklin honored the music of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. This time, they honor Ray Price & the Cherokee Cowboys.

What is noteworthy about the songs that were chosen for the album is that they seem to have been chosen more to spotlight the instrumental rather than the vocal performance. It’s a bold choice, and one that brings focus to some of Ray Price’s lesser-known recordings. But that’s not to say that Vince Gill doesn’t sound as impeccable as always. To match their level of musicianship, they work and play with a stellar group: Tom Bukovac on electric guitar, Dennis Crouch on bass, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Steve Gibson on electric guitar, John Jarvis on piano, Greg Morrow on drums, Wendy Moten on harmony vocals, the late Michael Rhodes on electric bass, Jerry Roe on drums, Derek Wells on electric guitar, and Andrea Zonn on harmony vocals.

The affectionate album transports the listener to times and places when and where classic country songs reflected the lives, hopes, and concerns of country music lovers. Whether shuffling on a dance hall floor or bended knee, these songs gave voice to the emotional inner life of those who just might shy away from such sentimentality if the radio wasn’t on.