Always On My Mind - A Thread for Willie Nelson

avecigrec

avecigrec

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I've wondered before we we don't have one, and been relegated mostly to the couch, sick, the past few days so instead of spinning I've been relying on the ol' Stupify and going on a Willie bender that's only mildly annoying my wife. We've gone through every available 60s and 90s album and we're in the back half of the 00s right now.

Anyway, here's a place to discuss and discover Willie's works more in depth...

I'll start things off with this, which I've been reading through over the past couple days (and is up to date, including his most recent releases):

www.texasmonthly.com

All 151 Willie Nelson Albums, Ranked

The recording career of country music’s greatest artist, surveyed, sized up, and sorted.
www.texasmonthly.com www.texasmonthly.com
 
I was yesterday years old when I learned Willie's albums with Don Cherry weren't, in fact, collaborations with the trumpeter - which certainly seemed like an odd pairing but it's Willie, so not beyond the realms of possibility!

Anyway, after listening to Augusta yesterday I definitely wish it were that Don Cherry instead.
 
Had to dig deep, but I was able to dig deep enough. May 11th, 1979...

20231004_003443.jpg

So.....I had a friend in high school, a fellow junior, who was a huge Willie Nelson fan. I got us tickets to this show in Greensboro thanks to my mom who hit the phone when they went on sale and grabbed a pair. This was back in the day when you called in to order tickets or you went to the box office. Those were your options. And it was so much better. None of this Ticketmaster online overload, website crash, garbage fees, scalping their own tickets bullshit. You called in, you ordered the tix, you sent a check, they sent your tix. And when it said you paid $9 to sit in the 23rd row, you really paid $10 to sit in the 23rd row.

Two days before the show, my friend says he can't go because his girlfriend doesn't want him to. This happened regularly and I was prepared. I'd already put the word out there that I might have a ticket available. After he officially bowed out, I just waited for the most attractive offer. It turned out to be my new running mate would drive, buy dinner and buy my ticket as well.

My new running mate - my AP History teacher.

Rodney was definitely the hippest teacher I had in high school. Wasn't surprised he was in. We went to a pizzeria pregame, had good pie and beers, hit the show and sat beside some altruistic folks with some good herb. Long story short, Rodney got totally fried and this was my first experience driving a straight drive car - Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, baby.

Monday morning, he made a beeline to me. 'Hey, uh, I did some stuff Friday that I could get into some real hot water over.' I stopped him and assured him it was cool and no one else would know. I kept my promise and didn't tell anyone this story til after Rodney passed away.

As for the show - spectacular. This was still the classic Willie And Family lineup. Sat in front of the soundboard. The setlist had 53 songs on it. They were all played.
 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Had to dig deep, but I was able to dig deep enough. May 11th, 1979...

View attachment 183858

So.....I had a friend in high school, a fellow junior, who was a huge Willie Nelson fan. I got us tickets to this show in Greensboro thanks to my mom who hit the phone when they went on sale and grabbed a pair. This was back in the day when you called in to order tickets or you went to the box office. Those were your options. And it was so much better. None of this Ticketmaster online overload, website crash, garbage fees, scalping their own tickets bullshit. You called in, you ordered the tix, you sent a check, they sent your tix. And when it said you paid $9 to sit in the 23rd row, you really paid $10 to sit in the 23rd row.

Two days before the show, my friend says he can't go because his girlfriend doesn't want him to. This happened regularly and I was prepared. I'd already put the word out there that I might have a ticket available. After he officially bowed out, I just waited for the most attractive offer. It turned out to be my new running mate would drive, buy dinner and buy my ticket as well.

My new running mate - my AP History teacher.

Rodney was definitely the hippest teacher I had in high school. Wasn't surprised he was in. We went to a pizzeria pregame, had good pie and beers, hit the show and sat beside some altruistic folks with some good herb. Long story short, Rodney got totally fried and this was my first experience driving a straight drive car - Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, baby.

Monday morning, he made a beeline to me. 'Hey, uh, I did some stuff Friday that I could get into some real hot water over.' I stopped him and assured him it was cool and no one else would know. I kept my promise and didn't tell anyone this story til after Rodney passed away.

As for the show - spectacular. This was still the classic Willie And Family lineup. Sat in front of the soundboard. The setlist had 53 songs on it. They were all played.
Click to expand...

LEGEND
 
avecigrec said:
I've been relying on the ol' Stupify and going on a Willie bender that's only mildly annoying my wife. We've gone through every available 60s and 90s album and we're in the back half of the 00s right now.
Click to expand...

I've done most of the 70s and 80s on my own, but have been playing the last couple 80s albums this morning and my wife is very unimpressed :ROFLMAO:

her: "Are we actually listening to this?!"
me: "I'm committed to it."
her: "Well, I'm not! This is fucking terrible."

I mean, it is. But I'm still committed to it.
 
So, as mentioned a couple of times here, I've spent the last month or so listening to every Willie studio album on Stupify based on the Wikipedia discography page, where they've included all his duo albums but not The Highwaymen. There are 20 studio albums not available on Stupify, and outside of a couple of early failures in finding some of the 60s albums on YouTube, I've yet to look too hard at finding sources to listen to these twenty just yet.

Country Favorites – Willie Nelson Style
The Party's Over and Other Great Willie Nelson Songs
Texas in My Soul
Good Times
Both Sides Now
Laying My Burdons Down
Willie Nelson And Family
The Words Don’t Fit The Picture
The Willie Way
Family Bible
Music from Songwriter
Island in the Sea
Moonlight Becomes You
Six Hours at Pedernales
How Great Thou Art
Night and Day
Me and the Drummer
The Eyes of Texas
Nacogdoches
Remember Me, Vol. 1

I will continue to make an effort to listen to these in some way, shape or form - which may well change some of the opinions I have below, but I figure I've put in enough work to be able to approach this conversation in a better position than I could have even a month ago (Though, truth be told, many of these opinions were already in place before listening to the rest, but now I know for sure!)

Thus, I present for discussion my favourite Willie Nelson album for each decade and ask, which are yours?

chart (65).png


1960s - Country Willie: His Own Songs
1970s - Phases and Stages
1980s - Tougher Than Leather
1990s - Teatro
2000s - Willie and the Wheel
2010s - God's Problem Child
2020s - A Beautiful Time

Willie and the Wheel was the happiest surprise of these past few weeks of Williethon - it's an album I knew only by name until a couple of weeks ago, and quickly became the easy hands-down favourite for me from his 2000s output.

Phases and Stages will assuredly be at the top of the list if and when I ever try and pull off an overall ranking of studio albums, so it's obviously no surprise that it would have won out the 70s, which is definitely Willie's strongest era by a country mile - though a good chunk of his stuff from the last dozen or so years has also been pretty spectacular.


Next stop: the live albums.
 
I currently have 29 on vinyl not counting however many with Waylon, Highwaymen, and then I have this thing with Kris, Willie, Dolly and Brenda fucking Lee.

I’ve got quite a few on CD as well.

I’ve never even thought about what my favorite album by Willie is. Gun to my head right now, probably Shotgun Willie. But in reality probably like asking me what my favorite Neil album is… depends on the day.
 
Lee Newman said:
I currently have 29 on vinyl not counting however many with Waylon, Highwaymen, and then I have this thing with Kris, Willie, Dolly and Brenda fucking Lee.

I’ve got quite a few on CD as well.

I’ve never even thought about what my favorite album by Willie is. Gun to my head right now, probably Shotgun Willie. But in reality probably like asking me what my favorite Neil album is… depends on the day.
Click to expand...

I'm at 26 on wax so far, but that includes 2 compilations and 1 soundtrack. On CD I only have Phases and Stages, VH1 Storytellers and a cheapo Waylon & Willie compilation that collects stuff from all their collab albums.

I'd say my top 3 and bottom 3-5 are pretty set, and everything else is pretty fluid depending on day, mood, angle of the sun, etc.
 
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