I love John Prine and Iris Dement singing In Spite of Ourselves. What else do you Dopers suggest in a similar vein?
I should say that I normally shy away from contemporary country music that seems drippy, cliched and sentimental…
Not a duet but you might like Old Crow Medicine Show, or maybe Trampled By Turtles
You might check out Gillian Welch & David Rawlings.
You might enjoy The Civil Wars. Not exactly bluegrass, but not contemporary pop/country either.
I can’t find the version I like but this song springs to mind. 15 Cascadia Yulegrass 2010-12-05 early show-While Roving On A Winter's Night - YouTube
A great folk duo was Ian & Sylvia. Here’s their little-known original version of “Some Day Soon.” You can find lots more of them on YouTube.
I heard about that one where you eat lots of cornbread and chicken-fried steak, but I can’t see how you’d lose much weight that way.
Bluegrass: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Raising Sand”
Folk: Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell, “Ballad of the Broken Seas”
Doc Watson, “Your Long Journey”. He sings it as a duet with his wife Rosa Lee. That version isn’t on YouTube or anywhere else that I can find, but it’s on ITunes; you can preview it there.
Not exactly bluegrass, but classic, folk-inspired country rock: the duets Gram Parsons did with Emmylou Harris on his two solo albums “G.P.”. and “Grievous Angel”. Here are two examples:
Bluegrass: Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs
Folk: Robin & Linda Williams, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer
Best known in Queer circles (and quite open about their own other-than-conventional selves), I present Coyote Grace (music will play when you click the link. Fair warning.)
Upcoming tour sadly cancelled due to chronic illness. Since their income has thus been extremely curtailed, I’m really hoping everyone buys their albums instead! (They’re friends of mine, too.)
Thisis an excellent bit of folk duet singing - Bill Crofut and Benjamin Luxon. Note the prices, however. I’m still waiting for the CD or MP3 release, dammit.
Janis Ian and Willie Nelson “Memphis”. You can listen to it here on her website. I wasn’t a huge Willie fan but this is a perfect framework for a duet of those two.
The real thing: Roscoe Holcomb & Wade Ward - “Graveyard Blues”
*Kate, and the Ghost of Lost Love *by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
Just so you’re warned, this is not some kind of Zepplin meets bluegrass crossover hybrid; this is a T Bone Burnett album with a couple of famous people brought in to do vocals. I was pretty bored by it, despite being a big Alison Krauss fan (and not opposed to occasional Zepplin either).
But I’ll add something constructive too:
It’s worth finding John Prine with Bonnie Raiit singing “Angel from Montgomery”.
Emmylou Harris has sung with everyone in the world, but it usually sounds pretty good. I like her and Willie Nelson singing “Gulf Coast Highway” (Nancy Griffith wrote it, BTW).
For that matter, Willie Nelson gets around a bit too, and it’s almost always good. Maybe not folk/country, but “Comes Love” with Rickie Lee Jones from a live album is one of my favorites.
All of those are more taking-turns with distinctive voices than close-harmony dueting. For that I second Gillian Welch (her and David Rawlings sing so close, you might not realize there are two voices).
Or the Trios albums with the aforementioned EmmyLou Harris harmonizing with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt (though there’s a lot of drippy, cliched and sentimental on them; I cut the two albums into one home-burned CD and it was much improved)
Again, not a duet, but the Steep Canyon Rangers are a fun bluegrass band.
One of the best duet songs I’ve ever heard is “That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again” by Roy Orbison and Emmylou Harris. Just wow.