Charlie Louvin

(Tompkins Square)

Charlie Louvin, 79, has nothing left to prove. A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame with his late brother Ira, Louvin influenced generations of musicians with his and his sibling’s pure harmonies and songs. Sadly, his first release in 10 years confirms what his last, Longest Train (Watermelon), made painfully obvious: Charlie can no longer sing. George Jones, Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello, Bobby Bare Sr., Will Oldham, Tom T. Hall, and other guests over the course of a dozen tracks don’t make the going any easier. This is especially true given that highlights from Louvin’s past (“Great Atomic Power,” “Knoxville Girl,” “The Christian Life”) are covered with little imagination or warmth. Dragging out a legend and propping him up with big names as they run through his greatest hits one more time has been done to death but never as poorly as it has here.

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This article appears in March 30 • 2007.

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