Getting ready for Superbowl Sunday with Willie Nelson in an H&R Block Super Bowl XXXVII (2003)

Hello Friends,

Its Superbowl Sunday, a time to gather around loved ones and celebrate the essence of what makes this great Nation so great, mainly wings and beer.

... and Monday morning hangovers.

Here's a throwback to one of our favorite Superbowl commercials from yesteryear.

This one featuring Willie Nelson in a commercial for H & R Block.

Get it?  Because he had tax problems.  Clever.

Without a Song

Willie Nelson - "Without A Song" (1983) - Columbia Records

Howdy Friends,

This is a VERY early 80's sounding record by Shotgun Willie.  

Like 1978's remarkable Stardust and 1981's Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Without A Song is another foray into tin pan alley-style standards from the country crooner.  

And while Willie, of course, sounds great on vocals and guitar, there's that certain tinniness to the rhythm section and organ parts that seemed to permeate a lot of recordings in this era.  All of the non-Willie guitar solos have that certain soft rock smoothness to them that borders dangerously close to sounding like Muzak.

Things almost sound a little too polished.  

Here at the tiki bar we mostly like our records stripped down and raw-sounding. Especially with our Country records where the star of the song should be the song itself and not the slick production style!

Or as Tiki T. is wont to say, "More thrills, less frills."

This is no clearer than on the very dated version of "As Time Goes By", a duet between Willie and Julio Iglesias, which probably would have sounded great at some ridiculously rich kids' Bar Mitzvah in the early 1980's.

The good news is that the title track is pretty amazing while "Once In A While", "Golden Earrings",  "You'll Never Know", "To Each His Own" and the closing track, "A Dreamer's Holiday" are all really good.

Even mediocre Willie is still better than mostly everything else!

RATING: 4 never knows what makes the rain fall, never knows what makes the grass so tall out of 5

The Willie Way

Willie Nelson - "The Willie Way" (1972) - RCA Records

Hello Friends,

Really good Willie Nelson record from his Nashville days.  Much more traditional sounding than his "outlaw" sound that was peeking just around the corner.  

As usual it features some great Nelson songwriting on songs like "You Left Me A Long, Long Time Ago", "Wake Me When Its Over", "A Moment Isn't Very Long" and "I'd Rather You Didn't Love Me" and a couple of covers as well, including the fantastic take on the Kristofferson-penned, "Help Me Make It Through The Night".

The Willie Way would be his last record for RCA and would also mark his departure from the country music capital to the much weirder scene going on in mid-70's Austin, Texas.

Light 'em up Willie!

RATING: 4 jugs full of good ol' Mountain Dew out of 5

Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard - "It's All Going to Pot" (2015)

RIP Merle!

Just say no Kids!

Actually, Willie is looking pretty goddamn spry. 

Maybe he's onto something!

Willie Nelson "Pretty Paper" (1979)

Hello Friends,

Happy First Day of Winter!

Enjoy this little ditty by Mr. Nelson, an all time holiday classic!

Cowboys ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold...

Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson - "Waylon & Willie" (1978) - RCA Victor

Howdy Partners,

We've got some golden era outlaw country on the turntable tonight and its fucking great!

This 1978 release captures these two singing cowpokes at the height of their strung out, rebellious powers!

Things get kicked off with the ultimate cowboy anthem, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys", a # 1 song on the Country charts as well as a Grammy Winner that year!

This song alone is worth the price of admission but Side One continues on with a Kris Kristofferson tune, "The Year 2003 Minus 25"; two Nelson originals "Pick Up The Tempo" & "It's Not Supposed to Be That Way"; a Jennings original, "Lookin' For A Feelin'"; and Nelson's gorgeous take on Lee Clayton's mesmerizing, "If You Can Touch Her At All."

If you can believe it, Side Two gets even better!

Kicking off with the only tune penned by both Jennings & Nelson for this record, "I Can Get Off On You" with amazing lyrics like:

Take back the weed, Take back the cocaine baby
Take back the pills, Take back the whiskey too,
I don't need them now, You love was all I was after,
I can make it now, I can get off on you.



This is followed by another Kristofferson tune, "Don't Cuss the Fiddle" and then Waylon's sincere & fantastic interpretation of Stevie Nicks' "Gold Dust Woman."

The partners in crime sing back and forth vocals on the Shel Silverstein-penned, "A Couple More Years" and the results are nothing short of stunning!  Absolutely perfect!

The side and the album ends with Waylon's classic ballad, "The Wurlitzer Prize" aka "I Don't Want To Get Over You".  A great and fitting end to a great record!

As Rolling Stone associate editor writes on this record's liner notes, "I humbly submit that the world needs a lot more Willie and Waylon right now and a whole lot less of that other crap!"

True 'dat!

RATING: 4.5 silver spoons to dig your grave out of 5

B. B. King and Willie Nelson - "Night Life" (1984)

Hello Friends,

Found this great clip while watching and listening to tons of B.B. King footage last week.

Willie Nelson + Top Hat = Awesome.  

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday 82nd Willie Nelson!

from Austin City Limits

Here's to 82 more!

Band of Brothers

Willie Nelson - "Band of Brothers" (2014) - Sony Legacy

Hello Friends,

We've lost count but this is probably Willie Nelson's 7000th release.  The pot-fueled ginger octogenarian with girl braids and the voice that makes angels cry refuses to quit and we couldn't be happier!

Nine out of the fourteen songs on the record are new Nelson originals which is interesting because he really hasn't had an album with this many new originals since 1996!  Of course, every single one of them is great and features Willie's signature laid-back vocals, his thoughtful, perfect phrasing and his inimitable nylon-string guitar picking on his battered and beloved Trigger!  

The songs are all reflective and nostalgic without being sappy.  Like some of his best work, to counterbalance the sincerity there's the ever-present irreverence ("Bring it On"), sarcasm ("I Thought I Left You") and tongue-in-cheekiness ("Wives & Girlfriends").  Years of vaping primo kush will do that to you! 

A big part of the record's sound has to do with producer Buddy Cannon's sensitive ear.  He doesn't crowd the songs with glossy overdubbing or muck it up with any over production. Many of the tracks sound like they could have been recorded by Willie in the late 1970's. A song like "Send Me A Picture" would not sound out of place on Nelson's classic, Red Headed Stranger.

Cannon also gets co-writing credits on all 9 of Willie's compositions.

Nelson, at 81, has long since graduated from Outlaw status to the elder statesman of American Music. He's a legend, an icon, and everything he churns out in his twilight years is going to be a worthwhile listen for sure.    

RATING: 4 guitars in the corner that used to have a song out of 5     

Willie Nelson - "Band of Brothers" (2014)

Holy Shit Friends!  At the ripe old age of 81 slick Willie is still at it and showing now signs slowing down!

This is the title track from his 2014 release featuring mostly original compositions.  

Remember kids, Jesus loves you but the rest of us think you're an asshole!

According to the gospel of Saint Willie!

To All The Girls

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

Hi-Fi Holidays: Pretty Paper

Willie Nelson - "Pretty Paper" (1979) - Columbia

Howdy Partners,

Smoke some if you got some because tonight we've got some Willie Nelson on the Christmas turntable.  Slick Willie really ended the 1970's in style with this festive LP featuring the likes of Booker T. Jones serving as producer and keyboard player; ex-Burrito Brother, Chris Ethridge on bass; longtime drummer, Paul English; and harmonica-player extraordinaire, Mickey Raphael, playing that "cuts through a fog"-style of harp.  (Its pretty much a reunion of the musicians and lineup used on the incredible, Stardust.)

Willie was at his peak in the late 70's in both creativity and record sales.  Interesting choice to close out this decade with an album of (mostly) traditional Christmas tunes, but all the selections here are performed in WIllie's inimitable style.  There's only a handful of artists that can perform songs like "Rudolph" or "Frosty" with no tongue-in-cheekiness and with the utmost sincerity.  

And speaking of sincerity...

Sixteen years prior to the release of this record, Willie wrote the song "Pretty Paper" which became a hit for fellow Texan, Roy Orbison, in 1963.  Inspired by a homeless veteran on a busy sidewalk during the holidays, the song is vintage Nelson.  Easy to hum along to, but heartbreaking nonetheless.      

RATING: 4.5 pretty pencils to write I love you out of 5

Happy 80th Birthday Willie Nelson! (April 30)

Willie Nelson - "Stardust" (1978) - Columbia

Hello Friends,

Tonight we're celebrating the 80th Birthday of one of America's greatest singer/songwriters, Mr. Willie Nelson.  

With a career that has spanned over 50 years (and still going strong), Nelson is the elder statesman of American music.  In addition to being a legendary songwriter, slick Willie is also an underrated fingerpicker, marijuana enthusiast, author, actor & activist.  Basically, an American icon up there with the likes of Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash & Elvis!

Known primarily as a country artist, Nelson has helped bridge the gap between Country Western music, jazz, folk, gospel and rock.  Along with Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and others he helped define the subgenre of Outlaw Country in order to counteract the more polished "Nashville sound" that permeated mainstream Country music in the late 60's and 70's.

In 1978-- in full outlaw mode-- he released an album of American Standards entitled, Stardust.  Produced by his friend (and neighbor), Booker T. Jones (Booker T. and the MG's), the LP consists of 10 songs done in Nelson's inimitable style.  With his trademark laid back, slightly-behind-the-beat vocals and arrangements that ooze country-soul, Nelson   brings his "A" game to classics like "Stardust", "Blue Skies", "All of Me", "Unchained Melody", "September Song" and "Someone to Watch Over Me". 

"Georgia On My Mind" peaked at #1 on the Country Charts and won Nelson a Grammy.  It doesn't quite surpass Ray Charles's rendition, but it comes close!

With Nelson's quivering vocals, delicately picked acoustic guitar with Booker T.'s quiet rumbling organ, "Moonlight in Vermont" is pretty stunning. 

As Tiki T. says about Nelson's calming and reassuring voice, "They should play this album before people go into surgery to calm them down!"  No doubt with a bourbon-chaser, Tiki!

Happy Birthday Willie!

RATING: 5 Red Headed Strangers out of 5