I first read about Lionel Richie's move to country music with interest.  I quoted an interview with him where Richie says it isn't that great a leap from Rhythm & Blues to country...it's all about heartbreak and great lyrics.  He would know.  The album, titled "Tuskegee" because that's where he was born, is more than a country album...it's a celebration of Lionel Ritchie timeless music, country style.

The album is a collection of Ritchie's biggest hits, now duets with Country Music's most famous voices.  Tim McGraw on "Sail On', Shania Twain on "Endless Love", "Lady Antebellum on "Truly", Martina McBride on "Still" to Rascal Flatts and "Stuck On You" the list is, well, almst endless.  When asked how he chose the artists and pairings, Richie said, "The beautiful part about this album is I wanted [my duet partners] to own it; I wanted to make it a part of who they are. A lot of times when you do duet albums, they try to copy the artist they're paying tribute to. What I wanted to do was bring in everybody and their arrangement so that it would sound like something they would do on their own."

"So, we custom-made ['Deep River Woman'] to sound just like LIttle Big Town...It was just Little Big Town with Lionel Richie visiting ... Darius Rucker with Lionel Richie visiting ... With Rascal Flatts, they played the track. It wasn't like, "Come on in and we'll get some musicians to back you." No, they played the song." 

And together, they make beautiful music.

Well, that's a warm welcome to the country.