Rolling Stone Country Music Picks

Shannon McNally’s latest album The Waylon Sessions pays tribute to one of country music’s greats, but she looks elsewhere in the outlaw canon for a version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night” that also appears on the collection. With the steel guitar of Fred Newell heavily featured, it’s a gritty, reverent rendition that emphasizes McNally’s warm alto and recalls some of the yearning eroticism that made Sammi Smith’s definitive 1970 version so explosive.

Michelle Garramone