OPO:Willie Nelson

^^^

Impossible.

The Willie/Kacey/I don't recall tour is among the shows I most regret missing in 2014, several others of which were profiled in the Times yesterday.

Comments from my Nashville Scene ballot (the annual reviewer round-up etc)

Willie Nelson & Sister Bobbie, December Day: Non-Xmas, but seasonal in the winter light, seasoned sense(s). Flexing ivories, geetar darts, lyrical & blunt.
He seems a little short-winded at first, but vocal levels shift as needed: he's scrawny, full-bodied, nasal, well-rounded, etc. Ivories are also flexible, while the geetar darts, jabs, practices Djangology (he said recently he'd been taking lessons in that, but sounds the same). She contours and solos too, given more space than usual (though also check last year's Let's Face The Music and Dance)(not to mention her own ‘07 Audiography).
Each track lives in its own story, its own moment.

Willie Nelson’s Band of Brothers does incl. some good songs: the title track is disgruntled, almost a kind of anti-anthem: “We’re all a band of brothers, and sisters, or whut-ever,” also setting the record straight: “I love you and you love me, but you cain’t tell me what to do,” here that, entourage? But their charm is affected by the querulous ol' context (c'mon Willie, you're gonna give us geezers an even worse name). Mostly, or too often, It’s a cranky rich man’s breakup album, sometimes addressed to wimmin who just cain’t take a hint, although the waltz where he compares one of ‘em to infectious, persistent diseases could make for an effective, plausibly candid flashback (via the Woman’s A-Side or Man’s B-Side) on the otherwise maturely dealing-with-it Phases and Stages. Like Blood On The Tracks’ “Idiot Wind,” but Willie’s note is from a suavely succinct poison pen. Cover of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Hard To Be An Outlaw” just sounds like another dumb complaint from the majestic bus (which he’s said he sometimes stays in even when he’s “home.”) But “The Songwriters, “ one of the few he didn’t write, does infectiously celebrate his well-earned privilege and power.

Shoulda acraped off scraped off the second sentence (first & sec orig. a tweet), since I repeated and elaborated on it, sorry.

Should not try to cut and paste on tinyass phones, either; sorry again

whenever i think to check in on willie nelson he's released like 18 more albums!

i've come around on red headed stranger... i never /disliked/ the album, i like it a lot, i guess the narrative aspects of it never "did it" for me. but i should listen harder.

Wonder if he has recorded as many as Tito Puente yet?

Willie on Austin City Limits in 1974. Just a fantastic show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VQsexJuiTI

So many good songs and performances

what are we gonna do when he dies

Post on ILM.

i suppose so

mourn how time slips away

STARDUST must be the best LP you can pick up in any dollar bin

he seems to release a good record every year

saw him perform in toronto on sunday, voice is still p good

that's so cool! would love to see him, but doubt he tours Europe

His Sinatra covers album is kind of fun, if completely inessential.

xxp I was at that Toronto show too. It was a little troubling when he played 'Jambalaya' twice within three songs of each other though.

My only complaint is that there were several moments during the show where Willie appeared to be auditioning for his very own "Willie Shreds" youtube

He's on ACL rn, and his playing--similar to that description--is kind of cool: Jazz licks banging into acoustic skronk.

Exactly. Cowboy Django Sharrock, pickin' on the world's ugliest guitar, named for a dead horse. I love it.

Can I interest you guys in jazz vocalists Gabrielle Stravelli’s Willie Nelson covers project, Pick Up My Pieces? She is a great singer who can sing anything and this project was a labor of love for her, she really is a fan and knows a lot about him. I just thought he because I can hear her voice in my head talking about “Trigger.”

Vocalists

Thought about her

Never mind

Can I interest you guys in jazz vocalists Gabrielle Stravelli’s Willie Nelson covers project, /Pick Up My Pieces/?I

So I figured

yes you can

My only complaint is that there were several moments during the show where Willie appeared to be auditioning for his very own "Willie Shreds" youtube

He's on ACL rn, and his playing--similar to that description--is kind of cool: Jazz licks banging into acoustic skronk.

I feel like people that complain about Willie's guitar playing at his live shows have never actually heard a Willie Nelson record

he has *always* had this inscrutable, off-kilter, jazzy phrasing. he constantly pushes ahead of or plays behind the beat, snaps the strings really hard, throws in weird runs and unusual chord voicings. Now that his voice is mostly shot (or, at least, he doesn't have as much lung power as he used to) it's remarkable that his guitar playing is still as great as it ever was.

his guitar playing was my favourite thing about the wonderful show I saw him play six or so years ago

how does this dude have yet another new album coming out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ticn0QrQwc

he's released like ten studio albums since Daft Punk released Random Access Memories.

I am listening to Country Willie (1975). Allmusic says "While not a bad record, there is really nothing here to recommend it."

If this is weak Willie, I'll take it all.

^Trigger Warning

Have been listening to Yesterday's Wine a lot this year and its been sounding like a masterpiece

First Rose of Spring is mostly really good, up to his usual standard. Also got new book coming out, w Sister Bobbie: a joint autobio.

Sad news: Bobbie has passed.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/bobbie-nelson-willie-nelson-family-band-dead-obit-1319861/

reading this now: really good alternating chapters of each sib's POV of situations, phases and stages, concise and vivid:
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/wp-content/uploads/Lukas-Nelson-2-1024x647.jpg

Tribute on Willie's Instagram too.https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2022/03/11/willie-nelson-shares-memorial-post-for-late-sister-piano-player-bobbie-nelson/

And as I said on Rolling Country, before I got the book:
Good on Bobbie: knew about her husband's band, which incl. her & Wille, but not the aftermath, ongoing consequences; also, I've got her rollin' Audiobiography (Willie and Johnny Bush show up some), and one of the duet sets w W, the remarkable December Day, but will have to check their earlier albums mentioned here, also still need the joint memoir:
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/11/1086000679/bobbie-nelson-a-country-music-pioneer-and-willie-nelsons-sister-dies-at-age-91

How have I never heard the words don’t fit the picture. What a stunning album

One thing I didn't get to during lockdown was listening to all 100+ (150?) Willie Nelson albums in chronological order. Some are much better than others, but it's possible every single one has something to recommend, which is pretty ridiculous.

What are your favorites so far?

Phases and Stages and Spirit are probably my two favorites. Also the compilation Nite Life: Greatest Hits and Rare Tracks (1959-1971) - I still need to give the early albums another listen, especially ...And Then I Wrote, but Nite Life was how I first got introduced to that era. And that massive run in the '70s is amazing, beginning with Yesterday's Wine (which Nite Life touched on) all the way through Stardust.

Besides Spirit, later stuff is often interesting, like Across the Borderline (surprising guest stars galore), the Lanois album, and his most recent stuff too, which I didn't start exploring until I caught his two more recent shows in NYC.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/magazine/willie-nelson.html

That's a really good piece, but I'm listening to the new album right now on Tidal and he sounds like Rowlf the Dog imitating Willie Nelson at this point.

I don't know why I've never connected that strongly with his music. I suspect it's because there's so much of it. Even if I find a couple of albums I like, there are still a hundred more, and too many of them just seem like dumb ideas or unnecessary somehow (the reggae album, children's albums, blah blah blah). I get the appeal, but not the worship.

My favorite from the new one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_-J_keVBY8

Saw him live in New York a decade ago with his band (including Paul!) and it was revelatory for me

unperson, you might like some of his w a bit of country jazz appeal: the all-instrumental Night and Day, the mostly instrumental Let's Face The Music and Dance, Willie and the Wheel(certainly does Asleep At The Wheel a solid, re their often bland vocals), Summertime: Willie Sings Gershwin, both of his Sinatra songbooks, and To All The Girls...: duets w a good variety of female singers.

Don't recall his duo album w Wynton that clearly, although I liked it---retain a stronger impression of Here We Go Again: The Genius of Ray Charles, where Marsalis provides some wild horn charts, reminding me of Cab Calloway, also he sings okay, as does Nora Jones, no longer Snora, more of a cool blue chanteuse, knowing when to shut up, as do Willie and Wynton.

No, see, all of those sound absolutely nightmarish to me. I'm sure if I listened to a random sampling of his "straightforward"/"country-country" albums I'd find a bunch of individual songs I'd like, but because they're country songs, with the exact same melodies and chord progressions over and over and over, they'd all blend together into momentarily room-filling vapor, with the occasional well-written verse or chorus popping out while it's playing but gone as soon as it ends. I mean, I listened to half of his newest album (eight songs out of 14) two hours ago, and liked most of them well enough, didn't actively dislike any, but I can't remember how a single one of them went.