Left out Simon & Garfunkel
In praise of the duet.
I love duets. What’s better than one person singing a great melody? Two people singing it in 2-part harmony!
Just to make sure we are all on the same page, a duet is two people singing the verses of a song in harmony (most often in the classic tonic/3rd style). Lots of songs have the chorus sung in harmony, with the verses sung solo. That is of course not a duet. Most Rock ’n’ Roll and Pop is performed with a single voice on the verses, or without harmony even in the chorus(es). Of course almost all Blues and Jazz is vocal harmony-free, but harmony singing lives on in Country and Americana music.
Early Rock ’n’ Roll rarely included harmony singing (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, etc.), one notable exception being The Everly Brothers. That’s because the brothers came out of Hillbilly/Country music, unlike the other Rockers who were more Blues based. I heard and loved The Everly Brothers long before The Beatles---who largely modeled their harmony singing on that of the EV Bros, though the latter were imo far better singers than Paul and (especially) John---had even started recording. I will give The Beatles credit for creating some truly fantastic 3-part harmonies, commencing with the Rubber Soul album and continuing on Revolver. The Byrds albums were also full of incredible 3-part harmonies (David Crosby is a fantastic harmony singer). 2-part harmonies are not too hard to do, but 3-part are a different story, especially live. While The Beach Boys could pull it off (I saw & heard them do it twice, in ’64 and in ’72), Crosby, Stills, & Nash couldn’t (they had to redo their Woodstock performance harmonies in the studio).
I mention all this because there are currently a number of great partners making superior music that contains not only excellent harmony singing, but wonderful duets as well. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Buddy & Julie Miller. Buddy is the lead guitarist/band leader/harmony singer for Emmylou Harris, but also makes solo albums as well as albums with his songwriter/singer wife Julie. Their singing together is not done with the "tight" phrasing you usually want in harmonies, but performed in a looser, more improvised style. It works!
- Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams. Larry served as Dylan’s lead guitarist (doubling on fiddle, mandolin, steel guitar, and banjo) and bandleader for seven years, then lead the band at Levon Helm’s Midnight Rambles for about the same length of time. He and his wife Teresa Williams---a fantastic singer!---have made two albums together, both excellent.
Both Larry and Teresa sing with a healthy amount of vibrato, yet manage to align their pitch fluctuations perfectly during their duets and harmony singing, a very difficult thing to do. On their s/t album, Amy Helm (Levon’s daughter) joins them to create a 3-part harmony on "Attics Of My Life", a song written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. I presume The Dead recorded the song, and I also presume poor Jerry and Bob Weir were unable to sing the song with good intonation (hey, don’t blame the messenger ;-). Also joining Larry and Teresa on the album is Little Feat pianist Bill Payne. Larry filled in for an ailing Paul Barrere on Little Feat’s 50th Anniversary tour.
- Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson. Kasey has a lot of solo albums to her credit, as does Shane. Both are Australians, and their Rattlin’ Bones album is absolutely wonderful! I have loved Kasey since her debut album, but was unaware of Shane until this album. Guess I need to check out his solo work.
There are of course many other singing partnerships I could mention, George Jones & Tammy Wynette---two of my favorite singers---being a particular favorite. Emmylou Harris greatly improved the two albums of Gram Parsons, who though a good songwriter was not that good a singer (he’s slightly flat throughout most of the first, less so on the second). Their duet on "Love Hurts" is so good many people think of the song as "theirs". Nope, The Everly Brothers did it a decade before Gram & Emmylou, and imo far better. After Gram’s death Emmylou embarked on her solo career, and the first leader of her Hot Band was none other than Rodney Crowell, one of my favorite current artists. He sang a lot of 2-part harmonies with Emmylou.
So, who else is currently making music that features duets, or even "just" real good harmony singing?
26 responses Add your response
Here’s one you have probably not heard of: An album entitled Healing Tide, by a duo who go by the unlikely name of The War And Treaty (?!). The duo is Michael and Tanya Trotter, the album (one of their two) produced by no less than Buddy Miller. If it weren’t for Buddy’s involvement, I’m sure I would never have heard of it. Buddy is well known for his activities in the Americana and Traditional/Alt. Country fields, including serving as lead guitarist/singer/bandleader for Emmylou Harris. THIS album is something else entirely. Imagine if Otis Redding and, say, Etta James went straight from a Baptist Church choir and into Buddy’s home studio in Nashville. This sucker is smokin’ hot! It should be the next album you purchase, if your musical taste is anything like mine. Available on both LP and CD (and streamed, if you insist). WARNING! Make it the last album of your listening day, as it will be impossible to follow. |
When I hear The Everly Brothers, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack, The Beach Boys, I need to be peeled off the floor. I have a smidge of parental (Mom) negative bias with Simon & Garfunkel. Just a smidge too “Mom” for me, bless her dear soul. Growing older now, I popped on their Central Park performance on YouTube a few months back. Simply amazing live harmony singing. When I watch/listen Parton/Harris/Rondstadt do “After the Gold Rush” on Letterman…forget about it. Game over. There’s a haunting, eerie, utterly captivating quality to those early Carter Family recordings. Those stop me dead in my tracks as well. |
Thanks fellas, some interesting titles of which I was unaware, particularly that of Nils Lofgren. @bgross: Richard & Linda Thompson are longtime favorites of mine. I have used their Shoot Out The Lights album as loudspeaker demo material since it was released. @thebingster: The Milf Carton Kids were for me the biggest surprise of the New Basement Tapes album (and related film). Very Simon & Garfunkel-ish. The original pressing (both UK and USA) of the lone Rockpile album (imo THE supergroup, it’s members being Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner---later a semi-member of The Pretenders, and Terry Williams---later drumming in Dire Straits) included a bonus 7" EP of Dave and Nick performing Everly Brothers material. Good, but not anywhere near as good as The Brothers. Did anyone else see Rockpile live? Astoundingly great! |
@bdp24 Yes, I've been a fan of Continental Drifters from day1, as well as the DBs. Here's a good clip: |
Nils Lofgren did an album in the mid 90s called "Every Breath" - it's all duets. Particularly fine are his tunes w/Bonnie Sheridan. I also like Richard & Linda Thompson, "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" from '74 - inexplicable that I would enjoy this LP so much but,.. and have always loved Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell, "You're All I Need" - so much feel good in that LP. Was one of my mom's favorites so it played A LOT in the house growing up. |
@tonykay: I for some reason that I can’t explain or defend don’t have the Emmylou Harris/Mark Knopfler album. I have the album Emmylou did with Linda Ronstadt---Western Wall: The Tuscon Sessions, and the two with Rodney Crowell. By the way, there is an Emmylou compilation album entitled Duets, a perfect sampler that includes duets with The Desert Rose Band, Roy Orbison, Gram of course, George Jones, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Ricky Skaggs (a fantastic musician!), and The Band (the song from The Last Waltz). Emmylou Harris: a favorite singer of many other singers (and musicians). |
@sbank: I love Matthew Sweet, and 1960’s Pop music (heck, Pop music in general, especially if of the Power variety), but for some reason never picked up the Under The Covers album. It’s now on my To Buy list! By the way, The Bangles were excellent live, imo by far the best of the 1970/80’s Girl Groups. In the 90’s The Bangles’ Vicki Peterson was in an L.A. band who had a residency in the basement club of an old hotel on Hollywood Blvd., playing every Monday night for a long time. They were named The Continental Drifters, a "supergroup" whose other members included Susan Cowsill, Peter Holsapple of The dB’s, Mark Walton (kind of a jerk. I rehearsed at his studio in Sherman Oaks) of The Dream Syndicate, a good singer/songwriter named Gary Eaton, and a fantastic drummer from New Orleans, Carlo Nuccio (he can be heard on Tori Amos’ albums Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink. He just passed away in August, of liver cancer). Carlo made one solo album, The Drifters four, the first imo the best (isn’t that so often the case? ;-). |
