September 18, 2010

Collaborations between rising and established artists are common, but when best new artist Grammy Award winner Zac Brown Band taps Alan Jackson for a single, the pairing should be considered momentous. "As She's Walking Away" captures a man's hesitation to share his true feelings for a woman: "Now I'm fallin' in love as she's walking away/And my heart won't tell my mind to tell my mouth what it should say." The heartwarming harmonies of the band and Jackson float along with Clay Cook's flickering mandolin melody, which is further brightened by Jimmy De Martini's tender instrumental on fiddle. As listeners fall for this song in the coming months, they can expect Zac Brown Band's album to include two other noteworthy collaborations, one by Jimmy Buffett and the other by bluegrass acoustic guitarist Tony Rice. —Michael Menachem

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