Willie Nelson - "To All The Girls" (2013) - Sony Legacy
Hello Friends and Happy New Year!
We've got a great double LP on 180 Gram Vinyl on the platter tonight! Its a 2013 release by Willie Nelson featuring 18 songs (new & old) that he duets with some of his favorite female singers (new & old).
Normally, we're pretty skeptical of "duet"-type albums because they usually wind up sounding gimmicky, over-produced and with no chemistry between the artists. When we saw "Top 40" names like Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow & Carrie Underwood among the list of performers we were a little skeptical to say the least! But fear not friends, our old pal Willie pulls this record off with near perfection and it sounds just as good as any one of his many classic records!
You don't need to go too far beyond the very first track to fall in love with the album! It kicks off with an amazing acoustic duet with Dolly Parton on a song called, "From Here to the Moon and Back." Instant Classic!! Dolly (who wrote the song) sounds great! Willie sounds great! And this sets the stage for the rest of the record which features unobtrusive production and laidback arrangements with Willie's velvety vocal chords and his signature acoustic guitar playing providing a backbone for the rest of the album.
Side One is also home to duets with Miranda Lambert, The Secret Sisters, Roseanne Cash & Sheryl Crow. Side Two kicks off with a raucous update of Nelson's own, "Bloody Mary Morning" (with Wynonna Judd) which is followed by a fairly saccharine-version of Nelson's classic, "Always On My Mind" (with Carrie Underwood). Not a great version, but certainly not enough to ruin the album. Side Two also has a great duets with Loretta Lynn (Merle Haggard's "Somewhere Between"), Alison Krauss ("No Mas Amor"), and Melonie Cannon (honestly, we're not even sure who that is!)
Side Three opens with the stunning "Grandma's Hands", a fiery and heartbreaking Bill Withers song featuring R & B singer, Mavis Staples. Side Three is rounded out by songs with Norah Jones ("Walkin"), Shelby Lynne ("Til The End of the World") and 18 year old, Lily Meola ("Will You Remember Mine").
Side Four starts out with Emmylou Harris joining Nelson on a cover of the seldom-heard Bruce Springsteen song, "Dry Lightning". Alt-country singer, Brandi Carlile, joins in on the Kitty Wells' classic, "Making Believe" and Willie's own daughter, Paula Nelson, joins in on a sublime versions of Creedence's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" (video here.)
This would have been a very sweet and sappy end to this great album but Willie was never one to wallow too long in sentimentality. The last track is an upbeat update of the Loretta Lynn-Conway Twitty cheater's duet, "After the Fire Is Gone" performed by Willie and Tina Rose (who, according to Google, is Leon Russell's daughter!)
And there's nothing cold as ashes / After the fire is gone...
RATING: 4.5 Bloody Mary Mornings out of 5
We've got a great double LP on 180 Gram Vinyl on the platter tonight! Its a 2013 release by Willie Nelson featuring 18 songs (new & old) that he duets with some of his favorite female singers (new & old).
Normally, we're pretty skeptical of "duet"-type albums because they usually wind up sounding gimmicky, over-produced and with no chemistry between the artists. When we saw "Top 40" names like Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow & Carrie Underwood among the list of performers we were a little skeptical to say the least! But fear not friends, our old pal Willie pulls this record off with near perfection and it sounds just as good as any one of his many classic records!
You don't need to go too far beyond the very first track to fall in love with the album! It kicks off with an amazing acoustic duet with Dolly Parton on a song called, "From Here to the Moon and Back." Instant Classic!! Dolly (who wrote the song) sounds great! Willie sounds great! And this sets the stage for the rest of the record which features unobtrusive production and laidback arrangements with Willie's velvety vocal chords and his signature acoustic guitar playing providing a backbone for the rest of the album.
Side One is also home to duets with Miranda Lambert, The Secret Sisters, Roseanne Cash & Sheryl Crow. Side Two kicks off with a raucous update of Nelson's own, "Bloody Mary Morning" (with Wynonna Judd) which is followed by a fairly saccharine-version of Nelson's classic, "Always On My Mind" (with Carrie Underwood). Not a great version, but certainly not enough to ruin the album. Side Two also has a great duets with Loretta Lynn (Merle Haggard's "Somewhere Between"), Alison Krauss ("No Mas Amor"), and Melonie Cannon (honestly, we're not even sure who that is!)
Side Three opens with the stunning "Grandma's Hands", a fiery and heartbreaking Bill Withers song featuring R & B singer, Mavis Staples. Side Three is rounded out by songs with Norah Jones ("Walkin"), Shelby Lynne ("Til The End of the World") and 18 year old, Lily Meola ("Will You Remember Mine").
Side Four starts out with Emmylou Harris joining Nelson on a cover of the seldom-heard Bruce Springsteen song, "Dry Lightning". Alt-country singer, Brandi Carlile, joins in on the Kitty Wells' classic, "Making Believe" and Willie's own daughter, Paula Nelson, joins in on a sublime versions of Creedence's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" (video here.)
This would have been a very sweet and sappy end to this great album but Willie was never one to wallow too long in sentimentality. The last track is an upbeat update of the Loretta Lynn-Conway Twitty cheater's duet, "After the Fire Is Gone" performed by Willie and Tina Rose (who, according to Google, is Leon Russell's daughter!)
And there's nothing cold as ashes / After the fire is gone...
RATING: 4.5 Bloody Mary Mornings out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment