@hifiguy42: Love Wayne Hancock! An old bandmate of mine (Paul Skelton) plays guitar on Wayne’s debut album, Thunderstorms And Neon Signs. Wayne made his appearance during the CD era (1995), but a couple of his albums are available on LP for you vinyl purists (I’m looking at you @slaw 😊). Let’s not forget to mention Hank Williams III, who covered one song from the album.
While I’m at it, let me bring to everyone’s attention a few other duo’s who make music featuring great 2-part harmonies in The Everly Brothers-style:
- I’ve already mentioned Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, but they deserve to be re-mentioned. Great songs, great singing, great musicians.
- Another is the pairing of Australians Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson, who made two albums together (they were also married for a time). Kasey also has a buncha solo albums.
- Foster & Lloyd made their debut in the mid-80’s , part of the New Traditionalist movement that included Steve Earle, Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, George Strait, Clint Black, Keith Whitley, etc. They’ve made four albums together, spread out over time. Radney Foster is pure Country, Bill Lloyd more of a Power Pop practitioner. How the two ended up together I don’t know.
- I think everyone already knows about Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, right?
There are other artists who regularly employ 2-part harmony singing, none more so than Dave Edmunds. At first he harmonized with himself (via the luxury of multi-track tape recording), but once he hooked up with Nick Lowe the two became a great team.
The Everly Brothers were not only great harmony singers, but Don Everly was a master at playing acoustic rhythm guitar (on the custom Everly Brothers model Gibson, based on the fantastic J200, my favorite acoustic. Emmylou Harris likes it too.) Their recordings also feature the best of the Nashville studio musicians, as well as exceptionally good recorded sound. And they had their choice of the best songs, particularly those of the husband-wife writing team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant.
No discussion of 2-part harmony singing is complete without mention of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Though they based their early duo-style singing on that of The Everly Brothers (okay, they copied them 😊), the radically different textures of their two voices did not make for an ideal blend. Yeah I know, a minority opinion.
Feel free to add your own suggestions. You can’t have too much harmony singing!