Customer Reviews

Oh Boy Records Classics Presents: Willie Nelson

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

 

 

This album provides Mr. Nelson singing and playing most of his classic favorites. The accompaniments are spare, for example, we hear an acoustic guitar, a steel guitar, and perhaps a chorus of two or three backup singers. I first heard recordings of Mr. Nelson's acoustic performances of Hello Walls and Nightlife, in the year 1976, broadcast from a San Jose, CA radio station.

Since the early 1980s, I had been trying to find the same recordings where Mr.Nelson's acoustic guitar is the most prominent instrument. But these recording have proved elusive. Instead, I've found songs recorded with a lush backdrop of violins or instead, or recorded with a rock'n'roll style band with drums and electric bass, etc.

While the present album is from a recent session, and is not exactly what I'd heard in 1976, it is close enough.

I listen to the present album often, and delight in Mr. Nelson's twangy guitar arpeggios, and his understated vocal delivery. FIVE STARS.

ol' willie just keeps on keepin', has since the fifties,like him best like in this form-just him and his old flat top-that's about as real as it can get.

The song list for the record shows alot of Willie's old tunes, and I was looking for the tune "I Just Can't Let You Say Goodbye" in particular. I was under the impression the CD was a collection of recordings from the era, but a listen revealed that they must have been rerecorded at some later (probably the 1990s) time. The photo of Willie on the album jacket was, in hindsight, a giveaway. The songs are decent, but Willie's vocal range at the time of the recordings is just not up to where it was when these songs were new, and I wanted the originals. I wish the recentness of the recordings was highlighted more prominently in the sales literature here. Some of the songs are hard to find now on CD, so I would probably still buy it now, but I would have wanted to know upfront about the rerecordings.