For those unaware, they are the Last of the Breed - the elder statesmen of classic country music who have inspired artists for decades.

No one else sings country music with the passion and purity of Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price, and, in March 2007, these living legends and Country Music Hall of Famers united on stage for a once-in-a-lifetime concert event that was captured for television and recorded to give fans the ultimate concert experience.

Backed by the Grammy Award winning Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel and Ray Price’s Cherokee Cowboys, Willie Merle & Ray: Big Hits Live from the Last of the Breed Tour (out now via Top Hat Tunes) presents 13 of their greatest hits as they performed them on that magical evening.

Side A:
1. Miles and Miles of Texas
2. Make the World Go Away
3. For the Good Times
4. Silver Wings
5. That’s the Way Love Goes
6. Okie from Muskogee

Slipping the vinyl record out of its sleeve, marveling at the beautiful shiny vinyl as the sun glints admiringly upon it, I placed it onto the record player, gently dropped the needle and sat back to enjoy the first side.

The set opens with the fun and industrious track Miles And Miles Of Texas, a cut also performed by Asleep At The Wheel and it comes complete with some rather lovely pedal steel work and then we get the Ray Price sung Make The World Go Away, a song that not only gets a lot of audience appreciation given to it, but was also one he himself released as a single back in 1963.

That is admirably followed by For The Good Times, in which the captive audience cheer from the very first sung line. Written by the great Kris Kristofferson, once again it was Ray Price who had a big hit with it. Then comes Merle Haggard and his harmonica-driven Silver Wings, a song from his A Portrait Of Merle Haggard album from 1969.

That’s followed by That’s The Way Love Goes, a beautifully sweet number from Merle Haggard once again. I love his delivery of the line You say, honey, now don’t worry so much, because it is almost like a spoken word moment of pure warmth and honest compassion. Amazingly sung. The first side then culminates on Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson performing Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee, which is unto itself a great song, but as a duet here is taken to a whole other level of exquisite musical excellence.

Side B:
1. Pancho and Lefty
2. Always on My Mind
3. Mama Tried
4. I Gotta Have My Baby Back
5. Sing Me Back Home
6. Crazy
7. On the Road Again

Flipping the vinyl over, the second side opens with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covering Townes Van Zandt’s Pancho And Lefty. While I was not fortunate enough to see Merle Haggard in concert, I did see Townes Van Zandt once at a small club, and that was a real, genuine treat. Delivered here by the duo as warmheartedly as one would expect, the audience also responds accordingly. Along next is Always On My Mind, one of those songs that never fail to affect me.

Mama Tried is a song I first heard done by the Grateful Dead but here done by Merle it is an incredibly heartfelt and excellent song that fully deserved the right amount of energy backing from all those around him on stage that night. Then all three musicians come together for the saxophone-infused I Gotta Have My Baby Back, a wonderful song that is, perhaps, the standout highlights of this live show.

That is then gracefully followed by Sing Me Back Home, another Merle song that the Grateful Dead covered, funnily enough. For me, this is one of Merle’s best songs, and, of course, here he delivers an excellent rendition. The final two tracks on this beautiful new vinyl re-release are a Willie Nelson masterclass within Crazy, who together with Ray Price bring the best out of it, before everything rounds out with another great Willie tune, On The Road Again; one where Merle delivers a great lead on electric guitar.

Official Purchase Link