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Willie finishes album with T-Bone Burnett
The as-yet-untitled album. recorded live in Nashville in four days, with a string section, Buddy Miller on guitar and Mickey Raphael on harmonica, includes “The Man With the Blues,” which Burnett says is the first song Willie ever wrote. Other tracks include covers of “Dark As a Dungeon” by Merle Travis and “You Done Me Wrong” by Ray Price. “Willie really nailed it,” says Burnett. “It’s just a really beautiful record.”
There’s no release date yet.
Meanwhile, Alanis Morissette was a surprise guest at Willie’s New Year’s Eve show in Maui, duetting on “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” Morissette recorded the song, switching genders, for her upcoming album.
Above right: Burnett backstage after receiving the Frederick Loewe award for film composing at the Palm Springs Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 5. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
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By Stillman
January 11, 2010 5:19 PM | Link to this
I was lucky enough to attend a taping of the PBS program “Soundstage” featuring Willie and this band, which included Stuart Duncan, Ronnie McCoury, Riley Baugus, Jim Lauderdale, Chris Sharp, and a few others. It included the songs mentioned, as well as “Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On” (Hank Locklin), “My Baby’s Gone” (Louvin Brothers), “Dream Of Me” (Verne Gosdin), “I Am A Pilgrim,” and several more. It will be aired on PBS stations beginning on February 25.
By DAVID BENNETT
January 16, 2010 5:56 PM | Link to this
WILLIE FINISHES ALBUM WITH T-BONE
“Some folks have mistakenly called it bluegrass,” Willie says about his music on his website.
As a journalist and a huge fan of Mr. Nelson’s since I started high school in Fort Worth in 1969, I can add a fact well-known to me.
I have spent enough time on Willie’s band bus and backstage during concerts to testify in court that there was never any “bluegrass.” There was a lot of grass backstage, but it was all fresh, very potent, and solid green.
Yahooo! Those were the good old dazes…..
By DAVID BENNETT
January 16, 2010 6:15 PM | Link to this
“Some folks have mistakenly called it bluegrass,” producer T-Bone Burnett said after finished a new Willie Nelson album of old-styled country music.
Austin long-based music writer Michael Cororan recently stated: “It’s actually pre-bluegrass. It’s some of the songs Willie’s been singing his whole life” with material rangesing from 1920s to 1960s.
The as-yet-untitled album. recorded live in Nashville in four days, with a string section, Buddy Miller on guitar and Mickey Raphael on harmonica, includes “The Man With the Blues,” which Burnett says is the first song Willie ever wrote. Other tracks include covers of “Dark As a Dungeon” by Merle Travis and “You Done Me Wrong” by Ray Price. “Willie really nailed it,” says Burnett. “It’s just a really beautiful record.”
Corcoran adds: There’s no release date yet. But he leaves out a major fact that he and other journalists such as myself know very well: While Mr. Nelson always had plenty of grass behind the stage and on his bus, but none of it was “blue.” It was all green and very potent.
Hanging out with Mr. Nelson for years, I was always glad to find that he had learned something important from Hank Williams’ early death, and that was: “STAY AWAY FROM WHISKY!”