Foreverly - Norah Jones goes Green with a little help from Billie Joe

It may seem an unlikely pairing but Norah Jones, her with the voice of an angel and Billie Joe, lead voice with the pop punk stadium filling Green Day, have teamed up to record an old Everly Brothers album. The original Everly's album was titled, Songs Our Daddy Taught us and was a collection of traditional folk songs, and so taken with the album was Billie Joe that he roped in Norah and together the unlikely pair set out to recreate the 1958 album. They called this album, Foreverly - see what they've done there, FOR-EVERLY.

I'm a fan of the original Everly album and as soon as I heard about Billie and Norah's version I was hooked - I've had the album on pre-order for a couple of months and it finally fell through the letterbox this morning. Once upon a not too long ago I would have braved the icy morning and trekked to the local record shop (now a kebab joint) for the album but these days it comes via Amazon and a whistling postie, but that's another story.

The album works well and the harmonies are wonderful -Norah's female voice serves to distance the album from the Everly's original, but other than that it's a very faithful rendering of the original. Norah's smoky pipes entangle themselves with Billie Joe's earthy vocals and I think this album will be a grower. The sparce acoustic instrumentation and beautiful vocals means that the album sounds both old fashioned and contemporary at the same time. Upon first listen Barbara Allen and Rockin' Alone seem like standout tracks,  but the entire platter seems hits the groove.

You'd have to be an American Idiot to ignore this album as a curio, a moment of madness from Billie Joe. It's a rootsy album that could become something of a minor classic - it's up there with  Alison Kruass and Robert Plant's  Raising Sand of which it reminded me.