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Release Date: 09/09/2008
Willie Nelson has been making records since 1956, and has been scoring major hit records since 1975, so trying to summarize his career on one CD is no small task.
Songs is hardly the first attempt to do just that, with literally dozens of
Nelson collections on the market, and there isn't much that's especially remarkable about this one, except for the fact that it makes a genuine attempt to follow the trajectory of
Nelson's life in music, and focuses on
Willie the songwriter as much as
Willie the vocalist. Beginning with
Nelson's early recordings of
"Crazy" (appearing here in its original demo form) and
"Touch Me," Songs throws in a few choice obscurities and fan favorites (such as the sardonic
"Good Times" and the sweetly mournful
"Yesterday's Wine") along with the hits and perennial classics, such as
"On the Road Again," "Whiskey River," and
"Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." The set does throw in a few offbeat versions of well-known tunes (a duet with
B.B. King on
"Night Life," for example) and surprise choices (how did
Willie's jazzy version of
"The Rainbow Connection" from
The Muppet Movie end up here, not to mention a duet with
Brian McKnight?), but for the most part
Songs collects most of the tunes most closely associated with
Willie Nelson in one spot, and it's a pleasant and cohesive listen. But serious fans will have lots of this already and dabblers will probably wonder why some of the tunes they've never heard of are on board, so it's hard to say just who this disc is supposed to please. Points added for
Colin Escott's excellent liner notes.
~Mark Deming, All Music Guide
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