Vintage country music gets a lot of good lip service these days. Indie rockers, punk rockers and classic rockers all profess a love for the work of artists such as Haggard, Jones, Lynn, Williams and Snow — if you have to ask their first names, you might want to just skip this review altogether — while the alt-country scene still thrives.
Still, there are precious few new albums that capture the vintage country vibe of bar-room weepers, tavern operas and honky-tonk heroes.
Jesse Dayton and Brennen Leigh get it right, however, with "Holdin' Our Own," a duets album that could have been released anytime between 1965 and 1975, just before the outlaw movement took over.
Dayton and Leigh co-wrote the majority of the album and fill it with legitimate heartbreak, charming word-play ("Two Step Program") and a few excellent covers, including George Jones' "Take Me" and Boudeleaux and Felice Bryant's "Brand New Heartache."
Dayton's gruff baritone and Leigh's holler twang blend like butter and honey, recalling the 1970s duets of Jones and Tammy Wynette.
Jeffrey Lee Puckett is The Courier-Journal pop music critic.