Along with John Prine’s “Paradise,” probably the song which I start almost unconsciously singing more than any other is Ed and Patsy Bruce’s “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Way back when I was a trouble-making 8 year old, my pops used to sit in the living room on Sunday mornings and strum his guitar along to Waylon Jennings’ and Willie Nelson’s duet version of “Mammas” from their double-platinum 1978 release Waylon & Willie. (My roommate Jenna just told me that when she was growing-up her mom would cut a friend’s hair and when he went to wash his hair out he would sing “Mammas” in a pitch-perfect Kermit the Frog voice: now that’s a mash-up I can get behind.) But when I return to W&W, I find myself listening to Nelson's “Pick-Up the Tempo” more than any other tune. Willie’s concept album Phases and Stages features a rather slower take on the tune, but the real template for the duet version is Waylon’s performance of it on This Time from 1974. The rendition on W&W simply overdubs Willie’s voice onto that version. However, even if it is an overdub, I still like it better than either of the other two. And my pop's had it right all along: it's a sweet Sunday morning album.
Waylon and Willie - Pick Up the Tempo [buy]
And here’s that other very singable “Paradise."
