RICK SHEA & PATTY BOOKER
Our Shangri-LA (Tres Pescadores)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

---

The pairings are legendary in the world of classic country music. George and Tammy, Porter and Dolly, Conway and Loretta - and now you can add Rick and Patty. Deeply rooted in the Bakersfield tradition, Rick Shea and Patty Booker have recorded an album of hard country duets that's nothing short of a masterpiece. Whether performing their true-to-form originals or digging into the songbooks of Lee Hazelwood and Merle Haggard, they sing and play every note of every song with an authenticity that makes you yearn for the old days and glad you lasted long enough to hear this one at the same time.

Shea's become best known for his work with Dave Alvin's Guilty Men, but his roots are in the Inland Empire circuit of truck stops and roadhouses that gave us Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Patty Booker is the offspring of the Okie migration, and grew up to work the country clubs of Southern California beside performers like Billy Mize and Joe Maphis. In each case, they came up in an environment that demanded performers who could deliver straight country music, straight from the heart, and that's what they provide here.

If the names that led off this review don't mean anything to you, you've missed out on something special, and this disc can help you catch up. If those names are as familiar as I hope they are, you'll be glad to know that the music can still sound as good as it ever did, and there's still a country duo able to prove it.

Track List:

When Will I Ever Learn * I'm No Good Without You * Summer Wine * Just A Matter Of Time * I Don't Know What's Wrong (But I Just Can't Get It Right) * Our Shangri- La * Fewer Things All The Time * You Take Me For Granted * The Bull And The Beaver * You * Baby That Ain't True * Fat Daddy * The House That We Once Lived In

© 2003 - Shaun Dale