With wailing harmonicas, soaring fiddles, twangy guitars, and a solid two-four square dance beat, the musical backdrop is the kind we’d expect to hear with the lyrics of Hank Williams or Merle Haggard, not of the great Broadway poet Ira Gershwin with melodies by his kid brother, George.  

Instead of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” or “The Gambler,” we’re hearing “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “I Got Rhythm,” and though a dozen of the greatest stars in contemporary Country & Western music are present, the central voice and the musical mind driving the whole project is Michael Feinstein.  

We’re talking about Mr. Feinstein’s latest album, “Gershwin Country,” in which he reinterprets classic Gershwin songs in a style that’s decidedly old-school Nashville.

Make no mistake: Although Mr. Feinstein is best known for championing the music of classic Broadway and old Hollywood, he hails from Ohio, where the general idea of a great song is more Dwight Yoakam than Stephen Sondheim.

As one of the leading interpreters of the songs of the Gershwins and their colleagues, Mr. Feinstein — who worked as an assistant to Ira Gershwin during the last six years of the legendary lyricist’s life — has had it both ways. At times, he performs the music as closely as possible to the way the composers intended it to be heard; on other projects, he finds fresh and original ways to reimagine old songs for a new era.  

Mr. Feinstein is not only making a statement about the durability of the Gershwin brothers songs — together and separately, the two are regarded as perhaps the central creators of what we euphemistically refer to as “The Great American Songbook” — he’s making a point about “C&W” music as well. 

To us older fans of the music, contemporary country is a lot like the sport of wrestling: It’s well-known that “pro” wrestling is unashamedly phony and utilizes costumes and scripts, but “real” wrestling is done by amateurs. Likewise, most modern so-called country music is indistinguishable from other kinds of pop (and rock): It mainly differs in the visuals, the preponderance of cowboy hats and boots. To hear anything that sounds like real country, you have to turn to the “alt” and fringe artists.

“Gershwin Country” is all the more admirable in that it’s authentic Gershwin and genuine C&W at the same time — Mr. Feinstein’s high baritone voice provides the common ground between the two. 

It’s also a duet project, involving a dozen Nashville headliners who have the chops and intelligence to fully fathom the depths of the words and music of Ira and George, like Amy Grant on “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” and Rosanne Cash on “I’ve Got A Crush On You.” (In the latter, they make the Gershwins’ “cunning cottage” sound like a ranch house.)

To an extent, the Gershwin songbook has already had a country pedigree. One of the brothers’ most successful shows, the 1930 “Girl Crazy,” had a Wild West setting, and in the great 1943 movie adaptation, Judy Garland sang a hillbilly-style rendition of “Bidin’ My Time.” 

In the 1957 film of “Funny Face,” Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson offered a “folk singer” treatment of “Clap Yo’ Hands,” in which the Gershwins originally meant to approximate a deep Southern spiritual.  Here, Mr. Feinstein and guest Lyle Lovett turn the 1926 song into a combination of Saturday night dance and Sunday morning church service, and the clarion cry to “join the jubilee” is at once an invitation to a two-step and a call to prayer.  

“Fascinating Rhythm” with Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers is even more of an infectious hoe-down. “I Got Rhythm” with Brad Paisley incorporates a double time jazz interlude featuring a swinging 4/4 with a hot accordion solo by Jeff Taylor and a whistling detour through “The Andy Griffith Show” theme.

These fascinating and rhythmic hot numbers are interspersed with romantic-style duets with the great ladies of 21st century country. The formidable Lee Ann Womack and Mandy Barnett join Mr. Feinstein on “Soon” and “How Long Has This Been Going On?” In the latter Ms. Barnett has a tone — and a conviction — reminiscent of another of Mr. Feinstein’s mentors, and frequent duet partners, the late Rosemary Clooney.

Here’s hoping this album is just a beginning; 12 Gershwin songs is hardly enough, and there are many more worthy contemporary country artists — including, among my own favorites, Ray Benson, Toby Keith, and Willie Nelson. Further, he could try this idea the other way around, and perform a collection of country classics Michael Feinstein-style.  

“Gershwin Country” begins and ends with its most iconic duet partners, both of whom are now 76: Dolly Parton on “Love is Here to Stay” and Liza Minnelli as executive producer on “Embraceable You.”   Both are slow, romantic, and full of feeling — proving Mr. Feinstein’s point that country music and classic show tunes have more in common than most of us realized. 

Ms. Parton ends her track knowingly, by simply repeating the last two words in an understated whisper, “to stay.” Indeed, it is.