Phases & Stages

Two of country music's enduring icons won a Grammy for 2013's Old Yellow Moon, their first collaboration. On follow-up The Traveling Kind, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell sound more at ease with each other, or perhaps it's the songs they attempt this time around, since they were written together or with top-tier contemporaries Will Jennings, Mary Karr, Larry Klein, and Cory Chisel. The pair's voices mesh smoother now, especially on fervent duet "You Can't Say We Didn't Try." There's also a pronounced country edging present on the gently ambling title track and great Southern funk of "Bring It on Home to Memphis." A cover of Lucinda Williams' "I Just Wanted to See You So Bad" sounds forced, but the pair manages to equal if not surpass Bobby Bare and Rosanne Cash on Crowell's "No Memories Hanging 'Round." The Traveling Kind bests Old Yellow Moon by merging folk ballads, C & W, and a dollop of Texas soul.