![]() Blue Skies (1978)Ĭolumbia’s executives feared Stardust, interpretations of songs from Nelson’s childhood, would be rejected by fans who wanted the outlaw they knew. Watch Nelson perform Good Hearted Woman in 1979. Remixed as a duet for The Outlaws, a compilation RCA threw together that quickly sold more than 1m copies, Good Hearted Woman hit big and helped Nelson and Jennings become American legends. Nelson and Waylon Jennings wrote this rousing celebration of their longsuffering wives in 1969, recording it individually. When he returned, he continued to struggle until Phases and Stages, a concept album reflecting on a couple’s divorce, produced this jaunty, bluegrass-flavoured boogie, his first significant hit of the 1970s. ![]() Bloody Mary Morning (1974)ĭisillusioned by Nashville and his lack of success, Nelson briefly left music in 1971 to raise hogs. This sublime interpretation of Clark’s homage to ancestors who crossed from Europe to Ellis Island is intimate and deeply felt. Immigrant Eyes (2019)Īcross the decades, Nelson has recorded several songs by his fellow Texas songwriters and outlaw country poets Billy Joe Shaver and Guy Clark, neither of whom ever enjoyed his mainstream success. Here, teamed with his regular duet partner Norah Jones, he cooks up a joyous country-jazz boogie. Nelson’s album My Way is a collection of Frank Sinatra’s hits – Sinatra being the singer who most influenced his vocal style. Nelson’s interpretations of Russell’s A Song for You and Gregg Allman’s Midnight Rider demonstrate the shared country and blues roots he and the rockers share. Tony Joe White, Leon Russell and Jamey Johnson join Nelson – who left Nashville for Austin in 1972 – on this atmospheric slice of southern rock. Photograph: Richard Weize/Getty Images 21. A huge hit in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, this is a stunning recording. Both men rose to the occasion and delivered exceptional vocal performances. Nelson had long been in awe of Ray Charles when the producer Billy Sherrill paired them to sing this dramatic, mariachi-flavoured gunfighter ballad. His exquisite acoustic picking (on his battered Trigger guitar) reinforces just how gifted Nelson is as a musician. Spirit is a striking album featuring this fine track on ageing and mortality. If the 1980s found Nelson dominating the charts (don’t mention that Julio Iglesias duet), the 1990s were more musically adventurous. Yet Nelson works wonders here, transforming Jimmy Cliff’s Jamaican outlaw anthem into a stark, sharp outlaw country song powered by snapping guitar and fierce, foreboding percussion. Watch the video for The Harder They Come.Ĭountryman, Nelson’s long-gestating reggae-country album (Chris Blackwell initially paired him with Sly & Robbie, to no avail), was generally regarded as a failure. Yet Nelson sang the title track, a haunting lament – written by Ry Cooder, John Hiatt and Jim Dickinson for Freddy Fender – about migrants crossing from Mexico to Texas, with such grace that it’s now a modern standard. Nelson’s album produced by Don Was found him surrounded by famous fans inevitably with such a project, it’s uneven. Honeysuckle Rose gave Nelson his first starring role in a feature film (playing a struggling country singer having an affair), but it’s this song that he wrote for the soundtrack – which encapsulates his desire to live life on a tour bus – that fans remember. His band (which featured his older sister Bobbie Nelson on piano until her death in 2022) provide beautiful accompaniment on a song that captures Willie’s Texas Zen spirit. Recovering from collapsed lungs, Nelson wrote the songs for Tougher Than Leather, his first album of original material in eight years. Nelson’s weathered baritone conveys a relatable heartache and he scored the biggest country hit single and album (of the same name) of 1982 while scooping several Grammy and Country Music Association awards. Listen to Nelson’s smash-hit version of Always on My Mind.Ī decade after Elvis scored with this bathetic ballad, Nelson took uber-producer Chips Moman’s advice and recorded it.
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