But You Can’t Paint It Clint Black

Nashville stumbled across a blockbuster four years ago when various country artists contributed to the tribute album “Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles.”

But subsequent country collections honoring the Beatles and the Beach Boys were commercial flops.

So why is Nashville venturing into the rock field again for “Stone Country,” a 12-track album of Rolling Stones songs performed by country acts ranging from Travis Tritt and Collin Raye to Deana Carter and George Jones?

“I think what worked with the Eagles record is what’s going to work with this one--it’s organic,” says Randy Nicklaus, an A&R; executive who spearheaded the project for the new Beyond Music label, which will release the album Sept. 23. “If you look at the Eagles record, the artists produced their own [contributions]. It really was very art-oriented. . . . A couple of the other ones I’ve heard, they were really assembly-line records.”

Nicklaus says he hatched the idea for “Stone Country” after noticing that many country acts perform the group’s material during their concerts.

He drew up a list of some 50 songs and sent it to various artists, asking them if they’d be interested in recording one for a record that would pay homage to the world’s most popular surviving rock band.

Tritt was the first to sign on, picking “Honky Tonk Women.”

“After ‘Common Thread,’ there have been a ton of these types of albums,” says Tritt, who recorded “Take It Easy” for the Eagles tribute. “And after doing one that I thought was probably one of the best, I’ve been pretty selective about getting involved again.

“But when this came along, it just seemed like a natural to me, simply because I’ve been such a big fan of the Stones for so many years, and I’ve been doing ‘Honky Tonk Women’ in my show from time to time for quite a while.”

The Stones themselves recorded a twangy version of the song, calling it “Country Honk” on their 1969 album “Let It Bleed.”

Surprisingly, Nicklaus says he got no song duplications from the artists. And though Nanci Griffith picked “No Expectations” and Blackhawk contributed “Wild Horses,” nobody recorded such country-oriented Stones material as “Sweet Virginia” and “Far Away Eyes.”

Still, Nicklaus was far from disappointed in the final result.

“You think that certain things are going to show up,” he says, “but it didn’t matter what was picked because you knew you were going to get 12 amazing songs. But listening to it on record and hearing certain songs that have never been done this way absolutely exceeded all expectations.”