Willie Nelson photo by David McClister, courtesy of Lost Highway.

When fans talk about classic-country sounds in 2010, they more often than not are thinking about music by the likes of Merle Haggard, George Jones, Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson.

Who did those artists consider classic? Well, you get a bit of an answer to that question on Willie’s latest album, Country Music. Released Tuesday, it includes covers of songs first made famous by the likes of Porter Wagoner, Al Dexter, the Louvin Brothers and Merle Travis.

It threads together numerous country subgenres, including rockabilly, honky-tonk, western swing and bluegrass with Willie’s familiar, reedy vocal above it all. Country Music is a walk down memory lane for the singer, but it also introduces some of his younger fans to music that came before them. In that way, it’s not a whole lot different in concept than his groundbreaking Stardust album, which pulled together numerous traditional-pop songs and set records for its longevity on the national charts.

“This is a group of songs that when they first came out, it didn’t take them very long to become standards,” Willie told Billboard of the Country Music track list. “Just like ‘Stardust,’ ‘Moonlight In Vermont,’ ‘All Of Me’ and ‘Georgia [On My Mind]‘ are considered standards, so are ‘Dark As A Dungeon,’ ‘Freight Train Boogie,’ ‘Pistol Packin’ Mama’ and ‘Satisfied Mind.’ These are all standard songs from another field of music, but they are still the same category. They are just as good in their own way.”

To produce the project, Willie enlisted T Bone Burnett, who knows a thing or two about recasting old songs. He did that as a producer with some of the material in the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss collaboration Raising Sand. T Bone likewise did that one form or another in overseeing the music for the movies Crazy Heart, Walk The Line and O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

“He brought most of the songs to the session, called all the musicians together,” Willie says. “I trusted him and I knew he’d get the right guys and the right songs, and sure enough, I think he did.”

A cover of Jimmy C. Newman’s 1954 hit “Cry, Cry Darling” is being added as a bonus track for customers who download the album through iTunes. Meanwhile, Willie’s introducing songs from the project every hour through Saturday on his Sirius XM Channel, Willie’s Place.

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Anne Murray's 2009 book, All of Me.

Canadian vocalist Anne Murray is putting the final touches on All Of Me, an overdue autobiography that recalls the public and personal turmoils of one of country’s biggest hitmakers during the 1970s and ‘80s.

Anne’s smooth performances made her a constant presence on both country and pop radio for more than a decade with such hits as “Snowbird,” “Shadows In The Moonlight,” “You Needed Me” and “Could I Have This Dance.”

Life in the public eye wasn’t easy. She married her first husband on her 30th birthday amid less-than-ideal circumstances, she was stalked for 20 years by a rabid fan, she suffered from stage fright and her daughter underwent a harrowing battle with anorexia nervosa.

“I was swept up like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and catapulted into a strange new universe,” Anne writes. “I was lonely and tired. My privacy was constantly being invaded. I was in love with a married man whom I seldom saw. I was touring with a group of musicians who at any moment were at risk of being arrested. What I wanted most was to stop and go home, but it wasn’t possible. I had commitments and obligations as far as the eye could see.”

Published by Knopf Canada, All Of Me is due Oct. 27.

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