Album Reviews : Jones, Wynette: A Special Team, Album

*** 1/2, GEORGE JONES AND TAMMY WYNETTE, “One” MCA The first joint album in 15 years from these two Country Music Hall of Famers is nearly everything you’d want. From the opening, goose-bump-inducing title track, their voices mesh as magically as ever. The nicest surprise is the strength of the songs, most of which smartly capitalize on this venerable pair’s vantage point of age and hard-won wisdom. “What Ever Happened to Us” simply yet powerfully sketches two people struggling to discover where their once-strong love disappeared to. They close on the brighter note of Merle Haggard and Max Barnes’ “Solid as a Rock,” which celebrates a couple that has weathered life’s storms scarred but intact. Listen up, kids--this is how country should be sung.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).