That is certainly an apt description for the life of Willie Hugh Nelson, a country music icon of the last half of the twentieth century.
Born in Fort Worth, he eventually made his way to Nashville. He initially got signed as a songwriter, creating hits for artists like Ray Price (“Night Life”), Faron Young (“Hello Walls”), and Patsy Cline (“Crazy”), all of which are included on this album sung by Willie. His success helped earn him a recording contract in 1962. He eventually landed at RCA Records and worked with Chet Atkins who produced him.
On Disc One, the early Willie is on display. It opens with a rarity and one of the first songs he ever recorded. “When I’ve Sang My Last Hillbilly Song” was laid to tape one night in late 1954/early ‘55 at a radio station Willie worked at. The rest of the songs are good and brought Willie moderate success, including “The Party’s Over,” which years later Don Meredith made the unofficial goodnight theme on ABC’s Monday Night Football. The ones that did chart averaged in the twenties on the Billboard Hot Country Singles; however, Atkins’ Nashville Sound made them generic. Willie sounded like everyone else at the time, and this confinement frustrated him.
When his home burned down in 1970, he took the opportunity to head back to Texas. In 1971 he chose to live in Austin where the music scene was progressive. Country and rock, cowboys and hippies were all coming together, specifically at the Armadillo World Headquarters. This invigorated Willie and in 1973 there was a noticeable change. The album cover for Shotgun Willie shows Willie with his hair grown out and sporting a moustache and beard. The title track has a honky-tonk sound. It was the beginnings of the Willie Nelson we’ve all come to know. He then released two concept albums, Phases And Stages and Red Headed Stranger, the latter of which was his first #1 Country album.
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Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Fellow Blogcritics take note, because at the risk of further inflating Mr. Bicho's already over inflated ego, I'm gonna put quite a shine on this piece.
This is everything a great review on a retrospective set covering the career of a legend like Nelson should be. It is part history lesson, part critique, and part analysis. Most importantly, it really makes me to buy the record, expensive as I'm sure it is. There are so many Nelson retrospectives out there, one doesn't really know to begin (I've got Sony's "Essential" set, and it barely scratches the surface).
With this review, Bicho not only pointed me in a good general direction, he gave me several reasons to consider seeking this out.
So well done, Bicho. Just don't let it go to your head okay?
-Glen
2 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.
3 - Matt Wardlaw
I haven't met a Willie set, studio, retrospective or otherwise, that I didn't like.
My only beef with this set, is that Beer For My Horses isn't on it. That's cool though, because I've got it elsewhere. 100 tracks, and it's priced really nice everywhere I've seen it - heck of a value!
4 - El Bicho
Thanks, Glen