Brad Paisley has already recorded about three-quarters of the material for his next album, an instrumental project that he began the first week of March. But it won't be strictly limited to instrumentals — it includes perhaps three or four vocal pieces that fall outside the range of his usual recordings, and one of those is a waltz that features the voice of the late Buck Owens.

Brad got permission to work with the track from Buck's company, and Brad thinks it's "the most special thing on the record."

"He wrote a song that works great as a duet," Brad explains. "He played guitar, he sang on it, he did the harmony parts. It's perfect. It's incredibly perfectly tuned... The theme of the song is running into someone you haven't seen in a while, and anyway, he and I are singing that to one another now on this record. And it's really cool."

Buck had survived tongue cancer and throat cancer in the early-1990s, and it left him with some speech issues during the final decade of his life. His performance on this particular track made it all the more rewarding for Brad.

"He nailed this, and it's the best he has sounded in so long," Brad says. "I'm really proud of it. It's gonna be special, and this [instrumental album] is a great record for that, 'cause there's guitar all over it, and it's very much a tribute to he and [former Buckaroo] Don Rich."

Buck died two years ago in his sleep after performing at his nightclub, the Crystal Palace, in Bakersfield. Brad was on hand for his funeral, playing a very emotional version of "When I Get Where I'm Going."