Parton, Paisley, Krauss, Cash Team Up With Michael Feinstein To Celebrate George And Ira Gershwin

A new album, Gershwin Country, features legendary entertainer Michael Feinstein performing the classic songs of George and Ira Gershwin with equally legendary country music performers Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley and Rosanne Cash.

The album was executive-produced by Feinstein’s collaborator and friend Liza Minnelli.

Parton joins Feinstein on “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” originally written for the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies and George’s last musical composition; Ira wrote its lyrics after George’s death as a tribute to his brother. It was also performed by Gene Kelly in the 1951 film An American in Paris.

Paisley sings “I Got Rhythm,” which was written for the 1930 musical Girl Crazy and became an instant jazz standard. Krauss performs “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and Cash sings “I’ve Got a Crush on You.”

The album closes with a duet of “Embraceable You” by Feinstein and Minnelli, a song that was a favorite of her father, the director Vincente Minnelli. Minelli was close friends with George and Ira, and chose George to be Liza’s godfather.

When he was 20, Feinstein became Ira Gershwin’s assistant and archivist, roles that inspired his 1987 debut album, Pure Gershwin, and his later educational initiatives and role as ambassador of the Great American Songbook.

“As a person who became besotted with [George] Gershwin long ago, I cannot be objective about his work, nor about his brother Ira’s, for it all goes too deep into my soul,” Feinstein said when the new album was released. “From the time I first heard them decades ago, the songs have felt personal, and as I have sung them through the years, they have become multifaceted diamonds revealing new angles of truth and depth with every exploration.”

“The best interpreters of lyrics today are country singers,” he said, adding, “The deeper habitation of a song comes from connecting lyrically to the story and telling it honestly and with simplicity. Country artists are the last bastion of that art.”

He called Gershwin Country “a chance to amplify and expand the palette of what Gershwin songs said, for I felt they could be heard anew from a different perspective and remain organic. And the thought of creating a Gershwin project with the potential to reach those who have never heard the name and would simply take the songs on face value was too irresistible.”

In a recent interview, Feinstein said his inspiration for the album—most of which was recorded in Nashville two years before the pandemic— came from a conversation he had with the late author, Maya Angelou, about her love of country music, which he said changed his perception of it.

The country genre, he explained, “gave me a renewed appreciation for the fact that the songs are so great—they effortlessly lent themselves to this treatment.”

This music, he added, “speaks to the heart, to fundamental truths that haven’t changed with time.”

A portion of album sales benefits MusiCares, a partner of the Recording Academy that provides a support system of health and human services to the music community across a spectrum of needs, including physical and mental health, addiction recovery, unforeseen personal emergencies and disaster relief.