Livin,' Lovin,' Losin' : Songs of the Louvin Brothers Various Artists Charlie and Ira Louvin may well have been the best of all the great brother acts which became rightly famous for their great harmony singing. These guys could do it all. They were excellent songwriters, musicians and singers and they influenced countless country singers who came after them. And now some of those singers are returning the favor and paying tribute to Charlie and Ira. This album is one of those rare tributes that manage to combine the best work of those being honored with contemporary singers who manage to make the songs sound fresh and appealing to today's country fan while maintaining the sound and spirit of the original recordings. Joe Nichols and Rhonda Vincent get the album started with a lively version of "Cash on the Barrelhead," a song also covered recently by Dolly Parton on her The Grass Is Blue album. Nichols carries the song with his vocal delivery, but the high harmony provided by Vincent gives the listener a first clue about just how good this Carl Jackson produced album is going to be. None of the next 14 tracks disappoint though, naturally, some are more outstanding than others. Two of the songs, in particular, remind the listener that these are Louvin Brothers songs. Harley Allan and Dierks Bentley sound surprisingly like the Louvins on their cover of "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby," as do Larry Cordle, Jerry Salley and Carl Jackson himself on "You're Running Wild," perhaps the strongest cut in the entire collection. The harmonies and instrumentation are spot-on, but that's the norm for this album. Other highlights include Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell on "My Baby's Gone," an absolutely perfect version of the song that makes the listener wish that Emmylou and Rodney would get together to record a whole album of throwback songs of this type. Not surprisingly at all, Patty Loveless manages to showcase just how achingly sad "Are You Teasing Me" really is in her duet with Jon Randall. Patty always manages to convey the deepest heartfelt emotion possible in her songs, and this one is no exception. One unexpected highlight is "If I Could Only Win Your Love" by Ronnie Dunn and Rebecca Lynn Howard. The song makes this listener wish that Ronnie Dunn did more songs like this one and fewer in the style of the last few Brooks & Dunn albums. Others on the track list include recent Grammy Winner, "How's the World Treating You," by James Taylor and Alison Krauss, "I Can't Keep You in Love with Me," by Vince Gill and Terri Clark, "Must You Throw Dirt in My Face, " Merle Haggard and Carl Jackson, "When I Stop Dreaming," Glenn Campbell and Leslie Satcher, "I Wish You Knew, " by Kathy Louvin and Pamela Brown Hayes, and "New Partner Waltz," Linda Ronstadt and Carl Jackson. And, just as the Louvin Brothers never closed a show without doing at least a gospel song or two, the album closes with three gospel songs, each of which is a highlight in itself. Dolly Parton and Sonya Isaacs have voices that blend as if they were sisters on "The Angels Rejoiced," and Marty Stuart and Del McCoury do a fine job on "Let Us Travel, Travel On." But the gospel track that everyone will remember most from this album is the Pam Tillis version of "Keep Your Eyes on Jesus," in which she is joined by the late Johnny Cash doing the spoken portion of the song in what turned out to be one of his last recordings. Livin,' Lovin,' Losin' recently won the Grammy award for "Best Country Album" of 2003. One listen will tell you why. Don't miss this album, because recordings like this don't come along every day. I want to thank Sam Houston from Ram Radio and Real Country Music for writing this review. Please visit those websites.