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Album: Jerry Lee Lewis, Mean Old Man (Verve)

Andy Gill
Friday 01 October 2010 00:00 BST
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If 2006's duets album Last Man Standing celebrated Jerry Lee Lewis's standing as rock'n'roller, Mean Old Man applies the same approach to his country side, with a substantially similar cast – Mick, Keef'n'Ronnie, Ringo and others – queuing up to add shaky barroom harmonies and the occasional few bars of guitar.

Understandably, Jerry Lee sounds most at home in the company of grizzled Nashville chums like Merle Haggard ("Swinging Doors") and Willie Nelson ("Whiskey River"), or with Solomon Burke and Mavis Staples on childhood gospel memories like "Railroad to Heaven" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken", respectively. The most adept harmonies here come courtesy of Gillian Welch on "Please Release Me", but frankly, the 75-year-old sounds happiest of all on his ownsome, with a grittily believable solo run through "Sunday Morning Coming Down".

DOWNLOAD THIS Sunday Morning Coming Down; Swinging Doors

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