Top Five On Friday - 7/13/07

Top Five, good!

Top 5 Musical Collaborations (songs, albums) it can be a mixture of both.

1) "This Is Us" by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. I love this combination of voices. Emmylou can sing with nearly anyone, and it always sounds good.

2) "Veronica" by Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney. Perhaps Veronica is Eleanor Rigby's sister? This song combines Paul's fine tune-crafting and knack for storytelling with Elvis' ability to rock.

3) "Molly Bawn" by The Chieftains and Alison Krauss. The Chieftains have done collaborations for almost half their career, it seems. I think this one worked the best, of all the Chieftains collaborations I've heard. Alison's voice here is so totally haunting.

4) "Olympic Reel" by Natalie MacMaster and Mark O'Connor. Natalie has done some great collaborations, but I think this is my favorite. You can clearly differentiate the two fiddle styles of Natalie and Mark here. See also: Her entire "Blueprint" album.

5) "Release" by Afro Celt Sound System and Sinead O'Connor. This is one of my favorite ACSS songs of all time. It's dark, it's atmospheric, and it has Sinead's great vocals. I don't think I've heard her sing better at any time.

Bonus: "I'll Fly Away" by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch. Two beautiful female voices join together as one. How can you not love this?