About six months ago I helped my wife throw a birthday party for one of her good buddies. We rented out a coffee shop and decked it out in candles. My friends and I played bad jazz music and recited worse poetry. Finally, just last week the husband of the birthday girl walked up to me and handed me a twenty-dollar gift certificate to America's favorite record store. He bought it for me as an appreciation gift after the party, but it got lost in his messy office for six months.

I had planned on spending a long time at the store, browsing through all forty aisles and picking out the perfect CD. I started in C&W and made it as far as the N's when I was confronted with the remastered, reissued CD of Willie Nelson's 1975 concept masterpiece, Red Headed Stranger. Part of Columbia Records' American Milestones series.

While I have never owned this record, I do have 1978's Willie and Family Live on which he performs several of the tunes, and I was familiar with the concept. As best as I can figure it, the plot is as follows: A preacher's wife runs off with another man. This breaks the preacher's heart and causes him to loose his mind. He finds the couple in a bar and shoots them. Heartsick and blinded with rage, he crosses the west raising hell. Finally in Denver he meets another woman. They dance, spend the night together, and our hero is redeemed through love.

The remastered Red Headed Stranger sounds great. The sparse production (much of the album is just Willie and Trigger - his nylon stringed Martin guitar) translates very well to a modern stereo system. Willie's voice has never sounded stronger or more expressive.

But the reason to buy this album is the songs. Red Headed Stranger should be listened to in one sitting. Unlike a lot of concept albums, this one works because it never becomes tedious. He returns several times to a few important musical themes. Most of the tracks are less than two minutes long. The bulk of the plotline runs from the first song, "Time of the Preacher," through about track 12, "Can I Sleep Here in Your Arms," and includes Willie's first #1 song, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." The album reaches a surprisingly comic climax during the title track, #6. At that point the story kind of peters out. But even the unfocused feel of the second half does not mean it is worth skipping. "Hands on the Wheel," the final song to contain vocals on the original album, is one of Willie's most passionate performances. The American Milestones version includes four nifty bonus tracks, including Willie's take on standards from Hank Williams and Bach.

Red Headed Stranger is one of the most important Country albums of its day and a necessary addition to any music lover's collection.