Texas is where Willie Nelson gets to be Willie, pigtails and all. On this cusp of his 90th year, we look back at how and why the rest of the world followed our lead.
Had Nelson left behind only the songs he wrote as a young man in his 20s in the late 1950s and early 1960s, his reputation as a songwriter would still be secure.
“He’s written another 10, 12 songs in the last 20 years that are classics,” singer-songwriter Todd Snider says. “There’s something about this connection he found to the world. He left it open. Most people, the drain gets clogged every once in a while. Not Willie. He’s in a different place. He’s in a different time.”The late, great songwriter Billy Joe Shaver once put it this way. “His songs are healing songs. All of 'em. They’ll heal you if you listen.
His voice’s rough edges were never sanded into smooth perfection. The oddities in his tone, timbre and phrasing are the draw. He was born in Abbott, a small town north of Waco, and his parents didn’t stick around long, which explains the close connection to his biological and musical sibling, pianist Bobbie Nelson, who died last year. The pair worked up hymns and songs they heard on the radio. Nelson clawed his way to a career in music, first working in radio, then playing those late-night gigs in Houston.
Nelson’s reedy voice is full of fibers that tie his disparate following together. Nelson is part family Bible and part “Anarchist’s Cookbook.” His music is earthy yet sprinkled with stardust. He can be so much to so many, so he feels like he belongs to all of us. After all these years, he still resists easy description.
The quieter songs at the show were devastating: “I Never Cared for You,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” “Georgia on My Mind.” When Nelson reached for a note, he found it, his signature sustain and vibrato vibrant. When a song called for a solo, he and Trigger conversed in their strange language.
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