On The Road Again...The Willie Nelson Thread

Ojai Sam

Ojai Sam

Staff member
#151 Danny Davis & Willie Nelson - "With" The Nashville Brass (1980)

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Texas Monthly assembled an all star group of music journalists to take on a seemingly insurmountable task: ranking every album Willie Nelson has released during his lengthy career. Including veteran critic Rich Kienzle gave the project instant credibility with me, so I decided to follow along. Willie's ouvre is uniquely difficult to get your arms around. In addition to the sheer volume of legitimate albums on a plethora of labels, large and small, there is an avalanche of bootleg and gray market material consisting of demos and other curiosities, much of which is actually significant.

The article is here, behind a "limited number of free articles" paywall:

www.texasmonthly.com

All 151 Willie Nelson Albums, Ranked

The recording career of country music’s greatest artist, surveyed, sized up, and sorted.
www.texasmonthly.com www.texasmonthly.com

Since I have a history of starting threads that I don't finish :rolleyes:, I'll post here in the "WAYLT" thread for now.

This album comes in at the very bottom, #144. It was but one example of a peculiar trend at the time. Record companies started taking old material out of the vault and adding vocals by artists who not only weren't present but (as in the case of a morbid duet by Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline) happened to be deceased at the time. At least Willie and Danny were both breathing, although the former had long since departed RCA Victor for the greener pastures of Columbia where he finally found superstardom. Davis was still toiling away on Victor, in the midst of a string of faux Tijuana Brass-style country cover albums that served mostly as radio bumper music. Somehow the label persuaded Willie to write a brief liner note lamenting that Danny had never produced an album for him and extolling this project as "very well done indeed" (emphasis his). Maybe, but I see that it was never released on CD and hasn't been licensed to Amazon or Spotify.

How bad is it? Actually, it depends on the song. Willie was never well served by the bland "Nashville Sound" that head honcho Chet Atkins foisted on him. So bluesy tunes like "Night Life" and "Rainy Day Blues" do benefit from the beefed up, brassy arrangements. The former song even managed to hit the Country Top 20. Others are far less successful, in part because Davis was addicted to schmaltz, the worst example being the beer garden oompah treatment of "Good Hearted Woman". In a sense, it's not fair to lay this album at Willie's door because he probably had no legal power to stop it. But I'm glad the authors started here, because it gave me a chance to dust off this oddity for the first time since it came out.

:2.0: on the Sam-O-Meter.
 
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Ojai Sam said:
Danny Davis & Willie Nelson - "With" The Nashville Brass (1980)

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Texas Monthly assembled an all star group of music journalists to take on a seemingly insurmountable task: ranking every album Willie Nelson has released during his lengthy career. Including veteran critic Rich Kienzle gave the project instant credibility with me, so I decided to follow along. Willie's ouvre is uniquely difficult to get your arms around. In addition to the sheer volume of legitimate albums on a plethora of labels, large and small, there is an avalanche of bootleg and gray market material consisting of demos and other curiosities, much of which is actually significant.

The article is here, behind a "limited number of free articles" paywall:

www.texasmonthly.com

All 151 Willie Nelson Albums, Ranked

The recording career of country music’s greatest artist, surveyed, sized up, and sorted.
www.texasmonthly.com www.texasmonthly.com

Since I have a history of starting threads that I don't finish :rolleyes:, I'll post here in the "WAYLT" thread for now.

This album comes in at the very bottom, #144. It was but one example of a peculiar trend at the time. Record companies started taking old material out of the vault and adding vocals by artists who not only weren't present but (as in the case of a morbid duet by Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline) happened to be deceased at the time. At least Willie and Danny were both breathing, although the former had long since departed RCA Victor for the greener pastures of Columbia where he finally found superstardom. Davis was still toiling away on Victor, in the midst of a string of faux Tijuana Brass-style country cover albums that served mostly as radio bumper music. Somehow the label persuaded Willie to write a brief liner note lamenting that Danny had never produced an album for him and extolling this project as "very well done indeed" (emphasis his). Maybe, but I see that it was never released on CD and hasn't been licensed to Amazon or Spotify.

How bad is it? Actually, it depends on the song. Willie was never well served by the bland "Nashville Sound" that head honcho Chet Atkins foisted on him. So bluesy tunes like "Night Life" and "Rainy Day Blues" do benefit from the beefed up, brassy arrangements. The former song even managed to hit the Country Top 20. Others are far less successful, in part because Davis was addicted to schmaltz, the worst example being the beer garden oompah treatment of "Good Hearted Woman". In a sense, it's not fair to lay this album at Willie's door because he probably had no legal power to stop it. But I'm glad the authors started here, because it gave me a chance to dust off this oddity for the first time since it came out.

:2.0: on the Sam-O-Meter.
Click to expand...
144 albums??!?!?!
Wow.
 
#150 Willie Nelson - Island In The Sea (1987)

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No way am I gonna do a Willie a day. But if I did, it would still take me almost 5 months to cover all of 'em. :oops:

This a much better record than the low ranking by Texas Monthly would suggest. Willie took his road band and a few outsiders into Pedernales Studio in Austin and emerged with a very nice, if modest album. Booker T. Jones was his usual tasteful self and Bruce Hornsby, thankfully was invisible. The title cut starts things auspiciously: a cool cosmic cowboy tune that would have been at home on a Highwaymen album. We also get a fresh reinterpretation of Tom Paxton's "Last Thing On My Mind" as a downbeat reflection. But the key track is Willie's remake of "Little Things", one of his finest songs, with barebones acoustic backing. This version blows away the 1967 original and belongs on anyone's "Essential Willie" playlist.

:3.5: on the Sam-O-Meter. Dragged down half a star by a couple of weak songs.
 
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Ojai Sam said:
#143 Willie Nelson - Island In The Sea (1987)

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No way am I gonna do a Willie a day. But if I did, it would still take me almost 5 months to cover all of 'em. :oops:

This a much better record than the low ranking by Texas Monthly would suggest. Willie took his road band and a few outsiders into Pedernales Studio in Austin and emerged with a very nice, if modest album. Booker T. Jones was his usual tasteful self and Bruce Hornsby, thankfully was invisible. The title cut starts things auspiciously: a cool cosmic cowboy tune that would have been at home on a Highwaymen album. We also get a fresh reinterpretation of Tom Paxton's "Last Thing On My Mind" as a downbeat reflection. But the key track is Willie's remake of "Little Things", one of his finest songs, with barebones acoustic backing. This version blows away the 1967 original and belongs on anyone's "Essential Willie" playlist.

:3.5: on the Sam-O-Meter. Dragged down half a star by a couple of weak songs.
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I have never seen a picture of Willie Nelson where he looked young.
 
#149 Don Cherry & Willie Nelson - It's Magic (2007)

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This one is simply embarrassing, the third of three albums Willie cut with his old golfing buddy. Don had one top ten hit in 1955 ("Band Of Gold") which he parlayed into a career as an amateur golfer and the original voice of "Mr. Clean." Crooning at its most soporific.
 
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Ojai Sam said:
#142 Don Cherry & Willie Nelson - It's Magic (2007)


This one is simply embarrassing, the third of three albums Willie cut with his old golfing buddy. Don had one top ten hit in 1955 ("Band Of Gold") which he parlayed into a career as an amateur golfer and the original voice of "Mr. Clean." Crooning at its most soporific.
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You're a better man than I am, Ganja Din.

ETA: It sounds like he picked the wrong Don Cherry.
 
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#148 Willie Nelson - A Horse Called Music (1989)

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Yeah, this one is better than It's Magic, but that's not saying much. Subtracting Don Cherry accounts for the marginal improvement here. Formulaic Nashville string arrangements by veteran producer Fred Foster add nothing to a weak collection of songs, two of which are redundant remakes of songs from Willie's vast catalog.

:2.0: You can take a pass on this one.
 
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#147 - Willie Nelson & Curtis Potter - Six Hours At Pedernales (1995)

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Ray Price begat Johnny Bush and Curtis Potter, two similarly big-voiced if less talented Texas singers. All three were among the multitude of folks Willie made duet albums with. Potter, who died a few years ago, also founded Step One Records with Ray Pennington, the producer of this record. The sound is Texas swing/honky tonk with the legendary Buddy Emmons on steel. As the title suggests, these old pros batted out a dozen songs in six hours, including several written by Willie himself. It's all enjoyable, if perhaps a bit perfunctory.

:3.5: on the Sam-O-Meter.
 
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Ojai Sam said:
#140 - Willie Nelson & Curtis Potter - Six Hours At Pedernales (1995)

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Ray Price begat Johnny Bush and Curtis Potter, two similarly big-voiced if less talented Texas singers. All three were among the multitude of folks Willie made duet albums with. Potter, who died a few years ago, also founded Step One Records with Ray Pennington, the producer of this record. The sound is Texas swing/honky tonk with the legendary Buddy Emmons on steel. As the title suggests, these old pros batted out a dozen songs in six hours, including several written by Willie himself. It's all enjoyable, if perhaps a bit perfunctory.

:3.5: on the Sam-O-Meter.
Click to expand...
Looks like a book cover.
 
#146 - Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings - Honky Tonk Heroes (1999)

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Remember "Dandy" by The Kinks (covered surprisingly well by Herman's Hermits)? One of the best lines says:

And when you're old and grey you will remember what they said
That two girls are too many, three's a crowd and four you're dead.

That's true of singers, too. This album is a prime example of this "too many cooks" principle. It began as a Billy Joe Shaver project in 1989 produced by his son, guitar whiz Eddie Shaver. First Willie, then Waylon dropped by to add some vocals to a bunch of largely familiar, if classic songs written by Billy Joe. I'm not sure where Kris came in, but ten years later Willie decided to blow the dust off the tapes and put 'em out. He needn't have bothered. Waylon was in poor form and there are much better versions of these songs elsewhere. Eddie plays a mean slash and burn guitar, but it's a bit overwhelming for these well worn singers.

:2.5: on the Sam-O-Meter.
 
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#145 Willie Nelson & Don Cherry - The Eyes Of Texas: A Tribute To Lady Bird Johnson (2002)

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Where's Waldo Willie? I had to put this project on hold for a while in order to track down this obscure album. It was released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center" in Austin. Lady Bird, nee Claudia Taylor, as you may recall was the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson and the mother of Lynda Bird Johnson and Luci Baines Johnson. Willie says in the liner notes that she is "as important to Texas history as anyone I can think of." :oops:

For this charitable fundraising effort, Willie and Don glide through a dozen songs that share a Texas, or at least, Western theme with an easy listening vibe. The mashup of "Beautiful Texas" and "Waltz Across Texas" works the best but it's all enjoyable. Happily, Don is in much better voice than in the earlier entry in this series.

:3.0: A Little Bitty Job, but Let's Be Just, hearing Willie sing about Texas is always a treat.
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^ I am delighted you found something more tolerable, but still don't fully grok this project.

When you find that one album that is as adorable "as a speckled pup under a red wagon," I think I will finally understand.
 
#144 Titty Bingo - Bootleggers (2008)

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According to the band's website:

Titty Bingo is a Texas based garage band started by Fred Fletcher and Dahr Jamail in 1988 in Austin on Lake Travis.

Derek O’Brien joined in 1989 and Steve Bailey joined on bass in 1993. Their music is a blues based rock, country and acoustic mixture of songs. The band has had many influences, but Willie Nelson has been a major figure and teacher for many years. Fred is Willie’s nephew and worked for him throughout the 70’s. The band rarely plays live gigs. The first was the 1994 Farm Aid and at the Superdome in New Orleans. Through the years, Larry Fulcher has played bass and keyboard. Joe Jamail joined in 2016. He plays mostly acoustic and bass guitar. For the past 2 years they have worked at Arlyn Studios in Austin, Texas to build a library of songs to be released throughout the next two years. Bobby Nelson has played B3 with them since 1994 at most of their live shows, at Willie’s Picnic or Farm Aid. Willie joins the band live and in the studio when he feels like it.

Bootleggers seems to be a self-released project of mythical rarity. Here's an example of what the band sounds like with Willie on board:


So it's a vanity band consisting of Willie's kin and the son of "the wealthiest practicing lawyer in America." If I were in an Austin club pounding Lone Stars, I'd probably fall over in a swoon if they walked out on stage. :Matt:

:2.0: You had to be there.
 
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#142 Willie Nelson - Countryman (2005)

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Countryman emerged, you'll pardon the expression, under a cloud. The idea of a country-reggae mashup was originally conceived by Willie and Don Was in 1995 for release on Island Records. However, the sessions were shelved for 10 years when the label folded before finally seeing the light of day under a new producer. It was met with considerable snarky antipathy from both country and rock journalists at the time who just couldn't resist taking a poke at Willie's enjoyment of the occasional smoke.

What's more, in the past I've been very skeptical of Willie's forays into crooning so I didn't expect much from this genre-bending exercise. But I'm happy to report I was dead wrong. This album is a complete success from start to finish. The production relies heavily on real reggae musicians with added touches of distorted steel guitar and harmonica for country flavor. Even Toots Hibbert drops by for a vocal duet. Willie himself is in fine voice, his idiosyncratic phrasing and offbeat playing both nestle easily in the sinuous groove. There are a few reggae covers but the bulk of the songs come from Willie's back catalog. He went for some of his darkest material ("Darkness On The Face Of The Earth", "I've Just Destroyed The World", "One In A Row"), and their fatalistic viewpoint is completely consistent with the spirit of oppression inherent in reggae.

This is one instance where the masses on Amazon (who awarded Countryman 4.6 stars and a batch of enthusiastic comments) showed more open mindedness than the professional reviewers.

:4.5: On the Sam-O-Meter. Yes, I'm really high on this one. :mrgreen:
 
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#141 Willie Nelson - The Great Divide (2002)

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This one was produced by Matt Serletic, at the time head of Virgin Records and some time producer of artists from Cher to Matchbox 20 to Celine Dion. Matt must have a big Rolodex, since Willie's duet partners here included Lee Ann Womack, Sheryl Crow, an invisible Bonnie Raitt, even Kid Rock. The solo songs are pretty decent but this album was a total waste of time.

:2.0: on the Sam-O-Meter. Kid Rock? Really?
 
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