Audio Mixer: Mark Nevers.

Recording information: The Beach House, Nashville, TN.

Photographer: Alan Messer.

Arranger: Charlie Louvin.

As one half of the Louvin Brothers, Charlie Louvin made country music history in the 1950s with a steady stream of singles that mixed bluegrass, gospel, and Carter Family-like balladry. Alcoholic sibling Ira Louvin went off the rails in the early '60s and died in '65. Charlie's subsequent solo career was aesthetically consistent, but never as high-profile. At the age of 80, he could have been forgiven for resting on his laurels, but he was nevertheless game for a new recording that paired him with old-school country artists as well as alt-rockers who've absorbed his influence.

Nothing could ever replace the unique Ira/Charlie harmonies, and wisely that's not even attempted on the versions of classic Louvin Brothers tunes that are the album's calling card. George Jones's commiserating vocal on "Must You Throw Dirt in My Face" is respectful of the place the tune holds in the country canon but suggests new possibilities for it. Likewise, Will Oldham's assist on the chilling murder ballad "Knoxville Girl" takes more of a tag-team approach than a Louvins-style dual attack. Along the way, everyone from Elvis Costello to Tom T. Hall joins in, but the octogenarian country titan stays firmly in the forefront, assuring that CHARLIE LOUVIN remains on the right track.