237. Willie Nelson, "Red Headed Stranger"

 

I have never counted myself as a huge Willie Nelson fan.  Of course, I appreciate the songwriting - I mean, the guy wrote "Crazy" and "Hello Walls" and another couple dozen incredible songs - but I just don't like his voice.  I was approaching this album with a sense of "let's just get through it and move on."

Guess what?  I kinda loved it.  

It's telling that at first Columbia didn't want to put it out because they thought it was all demos.  (Willie had negotiated a contract with complete artistic control, however, so they put it out anyway.)  "Sparse" would be doing a lot of work describing this album.  It's quiet and contemplative, but with an unexpected weight and depth that I hadn't anticipated.  It's a country concept album, about a preacher on the run from the law after killing his unfaithful wife and her lover.  Not super out there for country music, but there you have it.

One of the biggest surprises for me was learning that Willie, who made his name as a songwriter, wrote very little of the album from scratch.  Even "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain," Nelson's first #1 hit, is an Acuff/Rose song so durable it was recorded by Hank Williams.  The whole album sounds like it came from a different era, befitting the songs, like it could have been recorded in 1930 or 1955 or 1974.  One of the originals, "Denver," which in and of itself sounds like it could be from the 50's, flows immediately into a guitar melody that I immediately recognized as elementary school fave "George Washington Bridge" (but which is actually "O'er the Waves" by Juventino Rosas - learn something new every day!).  "Down Yonder," one of the few songs with any kind of drums or percussion, is a frontiertown raveup that could be playing in the background of one of Al Swearingen's places.

I also immediately recognized the melody from "Can I Sleep in Your Arms" - it's the same as "Red River Valley" - and sure enough, Wiki confirmed this.  In "Hands on the Wheel," a cover of a Bill Callery song, Willie slyly slips in the melody of "Tennessee Waltz" as a guitar solo.  There's a lot of that kind of blending and pastiche on this album, which contributes to its timelessness.  

So I'm glad I got to encounter this little gem.  It's a nice, compact 33 minutes so it won't take you all day, and it sounds like Willie's just sitting there playing for you.  I'm not sure if I'm a Willie fan now, but I'm closer than yesterday.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? You know the drill; there aren't enough country albums on here in general, so I'm saying yes to almost all of them.

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