It takes two (You got the money and I got the honey!)

We have heard many duets by successful male and female singers that have topped the charts. For instance – Bryan Adam’s When you’re gone (Duet with Mel C) or Neil Young’s Star of Bethlehem (Duet with Emmylou Harris). Both these songs probably would have worked well even if they weren’t a duet. Both these songs have female vocals humming the same lines faintly in sync with the prominent male vocal. For me, a duet would make sense when the singers sing separate lines (stanzas) of the song to complement each other and probably join in singing the chorus. Like Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow.

The duet album All the Road Running by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris is a perfect example of the latter type. Knopfler and Harris sings separate lines in most of the songs, like a dialogue. The guitar sounds in the album are vintage Knopfler, but it is the graceful vocals of these two adorable singers that we eventually crave for. Halfway through the record (Rollin’), all we want them is to just sing all day!


Though it wouldn’t entirely fit into the second category of duets I mentioned earlier, Raising Sand, the album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, is a noteworthy release of 2007. While Knopfler is within his comfort zone on All the Road Running Plant doesn’t do his typical hysterical Zeppelin outbursts in Raising Sand. Instead he is sober and doing melodies here with Krauss, augmented by the superb arrangements by T Bone Burnett (listen to the cover of Townes Van Zandt’s Nothin’).

These two albums are two of my favorite artist (male-female) collaboration albums. They have lived up to the expectations; the singers here are not trying to be classy playing their part, but just having some fun together – like the Wilburys did.

PS: Maybe, Van Morrison’s duet album with Linda Gail Lewis, You win Again, could have easily made it to this list, but I haven’t given it much of a listen as I was not exposed to the music (and style) they are covering on this album.