Customer Reviews

And Then I Wrote

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Willie Nelson recorded these songs in 1961 and 1962 for Liberty Records under the supervision of producer Joe Allison, who wisely took a chance on the unknown Nelson and launched the career of one of the greatest writers in any style of music.

This is simply an amazing collection. The original version of Patsy Cline's signature tune "Crazy" is here (the Cline arrangement was reproduced almost note for note from Nelson's record) but every song is of equal quality and shines with the same brilliance of conception. Ironically, the punch of some of these songs is due at least in part to Nelson's restrained delivery; nearly all of these songs have been recorded by other artists, but I'll take these versions any time for the little twists that Nelson gives them. The arrangements are reserved but absolutely dead-on, reflecting producer Allison and session arranger Harold Bradley's decision to "stay the hell out of the way," as Bradley put it, and just let Nelson sing. The two guitars, bass, drums, piano and male and female background singers create the atmosphere and let Nelson's lyrics and idiosyncratic phrasing take center stage. The result is a peerless songwriter's album and, while it's a scant thirty minutes in length, it's so perfect that you'll have no problem listening to it twice.

All these songs are also on the 2CD set "Willie Nelson The Early Years: The Complete Liberty Recordings plus more," which makes available other songs from these same sessions as well as a great deal more. If you have that set, my best advice is to make a CD or tape of these 12 songs in order, sit back and enjoy one of the best albums of Nelson's (or anyone's) career. This is really as good as it gets.

I bought this LP in the 60's and love the fact that this writer could sing and play the guitar accompaniment as needed. The album pictures a well dressed clean cut Willie but I concentrated on the "sound" of the music rather than images. I paid 3.99 for the 11 songs and still have the LP in my collection along with many like Chet Atkins, "A LOver's Guitar" which is one of his best. I have never found it on the CD format . I was shocked that the "And Then I Wrote" was available for 53.00 through Amazon - guess I'll wait for an Asian import at a logical price!

Released in 1962, "And Then I Wrote", for Liberty records, this would be the first album for the singer/songwriter, legendary Willie Nelson, this is a solid package of self-penned material made into classics, with different arrangements than your run of the mill country that was heard on the air of the time. There's background singers, clean subdued guitar, piano, you'll hear Willie's clear baritone voice loud and clear, the recording itself is very effective even though it is missing steel guitar or fiddle, Willie adds almost a jazz touch to some of these songs, Nelson was highly influenced by Frank Sinatra. The songs speak for themselves, "Hello Walls", "Crazy", "Mr. Record Man", "Part Where I Cry", "Touch Me", "Darkness On The Face Of The Earth", "Funny How Time Slips Away", are a few of the classics on this Capitol cd, I actually own the original lp, imported copy purchased at the high price of ten dollars. You know most anything recorded by Capitol is A+ audio, this cd is out of print, but a must have for Nelson collector's, Willie Nelson was always ahead of his time, to know it is to listen.