This was 's last project -- an album of duets with the throaty-voiced devoted to the repertoire of singer and her onetime husband/guitarist . It could have led to a much more ambitious project, a musical theater production on the life of featuring just and . But shortly after this album was completed, was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to drop out (the musical went on to open in Cleveland with a conventional full band in Oct. 2007). As it stands, the - project finds in terrific shape, darting around in several styles, always inventive, always supportive of . divides his time equally between a Martin acoustic guitar and a custom-designed Martin alto guitar that effectively combines the characteristics of a bass and a guitar. If truth be told, the difference in sound between the two instruments is not that great because 's clear-cut timbre and touch stamp an indelible signature on whatever he does. The main difference is in how the instruments are used, for often seems to go with the acoustic whenever he wants to chonk away with rhythmic urgency while the alto lends itself to more intricate work. 's voice and delivery only faintly resemble 's, but that's OK, for she imposes her own, deeper-voiced, more overtly dramatic creative personality on 's material. The most interesting transformation occurs on, of all things, the covered-to-death standard "Fever" -- now reharmonized and revitalized, capped with a wonderfully weird avant-garde ending in which makes his guitar sound like a CD player skipping on a defective disc. is an interesting case -- a period piece in which dares not mimic 's original faux-Mexican accent in the politically correct 21st century, but instead interprets it cheerfully without apologies. Given the sometimes questionable commercial zigzags that 's career took, it's heartening to report that his final recordings were so classy. ~ Richard S. Ginell