Merle, Willie & Ray Join Voices

Merle Haggard photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Willie Nelson photo courtesy of Lost Highway Records.

Ray Price at "For the Good Times:The Ray Price Story" exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Photo by Donn Jones, courtesy of Country Music Association.

January 22, 2007 — Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Ray Price have joined together to record the appropriately titled Last of the Breed. The trio's first album together will be released by Lost Highway on March 20.

The album is a two-disc, 22-song collection of newly recorded versions of country classics, plus two new songs It was recorded in Nashville and produced by Fred Foster, who also produced Nelson's 2006 Grammy nominated You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker. Some of Nashville's finest musicians were brought in for these sessions including steel guitarist Buddy Emmons and fiddler Johnny Gimble. Backing vocals were provided by The Jordanaires.

Tracks include Harlan Howard's "Heartaches by the Number" (with Vince Gill on backing vocals), Cindy Walker's "Night Watch", Mickey Newbury's "Sweet Memories" and Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me, Lord," featuring Kris on backing vocals.

"It was real easy," Ray told The Tennessean about the sessions. "The three of us knew what we were doing and we just did it. We would sit in the studio and somebody would mention a song and we would decide whether or not we wanted to do it. All three of us sing a part of the song and we sing the lead instead of doing harmony, In some of them we might have done some harmony, but all three of us were doing our interpretation of the song."

In March, the guys will head out on a tour with Asleep At The Wheel as their backing band. The tour will include stops in New York, Nashville, Las Vegas, Detroit and Colorado Springs. "From what I understand, the promoters are all really wanting the package bad," Ray said. "We'll have to wait and see how it works out when we do it and then make dates for later on in the year because we all have our books half-full already."

In other Ray news, a biographical exhibit covering his career of more than 50 years opens today at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It will run through June.