Willie Nelson - Essential Willie Nelson
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Free Music Notes for Essential Willie Nelson
Free Music Review: Great Willie Collection
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a great collection of Willie Nelson songs to play when driving along in your car.Free Music Review: Best of Willie Nelson
Hit: 5 Stars
The best of what he's done.
spans a great career
Free Music Review: If you only have one compilation of Willie...
Hit: 4 Stars
this is the one to have. Let's face it, all compilations have their weaknesses, but the 2 disc "The Essential Willie Nelson" (2003) is the first to cover all the labels Willie has recorded for and all the big hits in one set! Disc one kicks off with 7 early 60s recordings including "Night life", "Hello Walls", and "Crazy" (which Willie wrote & Patsy Cline made famous). Track 8, "Me and Paul" starts Willie's 70s recordings including "Blue eyes crying in the rain" and of course his classic duets with Waylon: "Good Hearted Woman" & "Mama's don't let your babies...". 3 songs are included from the 1978 album "Stardust": "Blue Skies", "Georgia on my mind", & "All of Me" and disc one closes with two live tracks: "Whiskey River" & "Stay a little longer" both from the '78 album "Willie & Family Live".Disc 2 continues with late 70s and early 80s hits like "My Heroes have always been Cowboys", "Always on my mind", and of course "On the road again". More classic duets follow with "Pancho & Lefty" (a personal favorite) with Merle Haggard, "To all the girls..." with Julio Iglesias, and "Seven Spanish Angels" with Ray Charles. The 1984 gem "Highwayman" featuring Kristofferson, Waylon, and Cash is also here. The second disc is wrapped up with more duets: "Slow Dancing" with U2 (which surprisingly works because Bono is either MIA or extremely toned down), "Mendocino County Line" with Lee Ann Womack, and "One Time too Many" with Aerosmith. One review stated that these last three songs left a "sour taste" considering that they are part of an "essential" collection. I have to agree, but only greatly in terms of the Aerosmith song. It starts off well enough with acoustic guitar and Willie and Steven Tyler trading verses, but when the rest of Aerosmith kicks in and Tyler does his thing, Willie is drowned out and that's not cool on a Willie Nelson compilation. If one wants to hear Aerosmith, there are many ways to do so. So with the minor exception of the final track of the set, this compilation is indispensable. A great way to get Willie's biggest hits on one reasonably priced set!
*It should be noted that 14 of the 20 tracks from the 1981 compilation "Greatest Hits & some that will be" are included here not to mention 22 of the 30 tracks on 1999's "The Very Best of Willie" as well. So if you have either of these, 2003's "Essential" may not be essential. However, if you don't have any Willie compilations yet, this is the one to go with.
Also recommended:
RCA Legends: Waylon Jennings (2 disc, 40 track excellent compilation)
Free Music Review: +1/2 -- Fine roadmap to Nelson's career
Hit: 4 Stars
Waylon Jennings may be recognized for having first bucked the Nashville system, but Willie Nelson proved himself the true iconoclast. Both of these venerable outlaws shook off the chains of the country music industry to create brilliant musical legacies, but as this 41-track collection so aptly shows, Nelson's run was even more idiosyncratic than his compadre's. Nelson's music and lifestyle merged into a single entity, with his touring providing the grist of a troubadour's life.In celebration of Nelson's 70th birthday, Columbia has gathered two full CDs from over forty years and nine different labels, and spiced it with a pair of bonus tracks -- a rare B-side recorded with Irish rock band, U2, and a previously unreleased duet with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. The set opens with Nelson's first single, on the Bellaire label, "Night Life," and closes with his Grammy winning duet with Lee Ann Womack, "Mendocino County Line." In between are samplings from his liaisons with RCA, Atlantic, Island, Lost Highway, and over two dozen tracks from his years at Columbia, including a staggering seventeen #1 singles.
In addition to his solo work, Nelson's regular collaborators, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson are all represented, as are one-time partners like Leon Russell, Ray Charles and Julio Iglesias. Throughout this collection one can hear Nelson's distinctive vocal phrasing (e.g, Nelson's recording of "Georgia on My Mind" is equally as memorable as Ray Charles' iconic rendition) and unique acoustic guitar, in service of his legendary compositions.
As Nelson broke free of the Nashville orthodoxy, his work focussed more on albums than singles, and his post-RCA albums (e.g., "Phases & Stages," "Red Headed Stranger," etc.), though well represented here, are necessarily shortchanged by the anthology form. Still, this is a nicely picked collection whose chronological sequencing plays surprisingly well, given the range of sources from which the tracks were pulled. As an overview, this provides the listener an invitation to explore Nelson's album catalog more deeply, aided by reissues forthcoming in the Spring and Summer of 2003.
Some of the space that might have fleshed out Nelson's important albums is taken up with seemingly inconsequential tracks (e.g., neither bonus track, nor his duet with Lee Ann Womack, could really be labeled "essential"). Nelson's very first single, ("Lumberjack" b/w "No Place for Me?" recorded as an independent release) would have made a more spectacular bonus. Nits aside, however, this is a very good introduction to one of country music's most talented and original artists.
4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings.
Free Music Review: livingroom music
Hit: 4 Stars
Willie Nelson is sort of like a favorite old piece of furniture which adorns your living room. You're glad it's there, but you don't give it a lot of thought -- except when you're sitting on it and appreciating how comfortable it is. A collection like this one reminds us of how good the man is and what a remarkable career he's had.The more consistently successful of the two discs is the first one, full of classics and obscurities (the odd "I Never Cared for You," which sounds like something Dylan might have produced had he pursued a career in country music). The one clunker proves that any song Nelson does with the word "cowboys" in the title is one to pass on. (Not that there's anything wrong with cowboy songs. If you want to hear some good ones, hunt up Ian Tyson or Don Edwards. But "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys" or [the opener on #2] "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys"? Puh-leeze....) The pickings on the second disc are slimmer, though there are some fine songs and performances here, too, one of which is not the execrable "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." Still, for its documentation of Nelson's willingness to explore musical styles beyond basic country, it's well worth a listen. Unlike most established artists, Nelson is unafraid to experiment and even to fail sometimes. But when he succeeds -- as in the lovely duet with Emmylou Harris, "Everywhere I Go," or the Nelson/Haggard take on Townes Van Zandt's faux-folk ballad "Pancho and Lefty" -- the results take one's breath away.
Thanks, Willie, for making the livingroom such a pleasant place to visit.