Customer Reviews

Always on My Mind

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a lovely CD. The production is precise and crisp. Willie's voice has never sounded better. The choice of songs is at first surprising, but as soon as you start to listen you realize that once Willie sings something it belongs to him. Nothing proves this more than listening to him steal Always On My Mind away from the King. The song may be the highlight, but other great tracks include A Whiter Shade of Pale (which is a nice duet with Waylon Jennings), Let It Be Me, The Last Thing I Needed The First Thing This Morning, and the somber closer, The Party's Over.

You absolutely can't go wrong with this whether you are a die-hard fan (in which case you already have this) or a casual listener.

Pure of voice, pure of soulful lead guitar played on beat-up classical guitar, a songwriter of great subtlety and depth who can conjure up any mood, paint vivid scenes of American myth, and bring you back to the simpler American days of our dreams.

This is a solid cd in which Willie does a great job
with the material. The tracks "Always on my mind",
"Old Fords and A Natural Stone", "Do Right Woman, Do
Right Man" are the tracks to listen to, along with
the disc's best work, "The Last Thing I Needed First
Thing This Morning" (One of his best songs ever)

Some of the other songs are either okay or just bad.
Bridge over Trouble water is a stretch for Willie
but decent. Whiter Shade of Pale is very forgetable.

Overall, This cd is worth the money if your a Willie
fan.

This is classic Willie. His rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was chosen by my daughter and her father to dance to at her wedding and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

The 80s was a time when the "Urban Cowboy" fad suddenly made country music mainstream again and Nashville stoked the crossover fires with acts like Alabama, Kenny Rogers, and Anne Murray blurring the lines between the music of rural America and mainstream pop.

While Willie covers quite a few pop songs here, he re-fashions them into his image, rather than allowing himself to be bent to theirs and for the most part the album is very successful. Memphis producing legend Chips Moman is sympathetic and doesn't drown Nelson in unnecessary instrumentation or shove him down into the mix.

HIGHLIGHTS:
He doesn't steal "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" from Aretha (as Amazon's reviewer notes) but he does successfully tap into the 'wandering eyes' theme inherent in Moman's tune. It was an inspired choice for the album and works well. The title track is easily the finest track here. Willie takes an also ran Elvis track and makes it his. (This coming from someone who owns all 3 Elvis "decade" box sets). I'll also take issue with the assessment that "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is 'questionable' as the Amazon reviewer asserts. Nelson stretches and we get to hear his upper register..something he doesn't often use. It's a pleasant surprise and the addition of a sensitive vocal from Waylon Jennings only makes it better. Clever lyrics highlight "Last Thing I Needed First Thing this Morning".

LOWS:
The epic "Bridge over Troubled Water" really calls for a "belter" vocalist...and that Willie is decidedly not. At the coda where the music swells for the big finale, it feels like a whimper instead of a bang. It's one of the few misbegotten song choices here. "Permanently Lonely" isn't awful but it's somewhat mediocre. Amid the stronger songs here, it's a valley.

BOTTOM LINE:
While it's definitely not a highwater mark in Willie's catalogue like STARDUST, it's a fine effort that holds up surprisingly well. Every Nelson fan will probably like this and most country fans should as well.

3 1/2 stars