Memories and Moments

Listening to Memories and Moments, Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott’s much-anticipated follow-up to last year’s live album, We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This, is about the closest you are ever likely to get to hanging out with two of the most transcendently talented exponents of Americana music. Grammy-winning songwriters, sought-after Nashville sessionistas, touring comrades (with Steve Earle’s Bluegrass Dukes) and soul-brothers in harmonic synchronicity, O’Brien and Scott have countless albums in their discographies including Real Time (2000), which as an album of two guys making incredible music with minimal post-production, is the precursor to Memories and Moments.

The newer joint features five songs each by O’Brien and Scott, a signature collaboration (‘Turn Your Dirty Lights On’), covers of Hank Williams’ ‘Alone and Forsaken’ and George Jones’ ‘Just One More’ (the greatest drinking song ever written), and a moving rendition of John Prine’s ‘Paradise’ with the composer himself sitting in on guitar and singing. The whole shebang took just three days to record and was boosted into production by a campaign on the Kickstarter website. You’ll be hard-pressed to add a more worthy album to your Americana collection this year.