Your Essential Willie Nelson Songs
- Michael Corcoran lists “Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain” as the number one essential Willie Nelson song and asks, “Which Willie Nelson songs can you not live without?” It’s hard to argue with his list, but seeing as though it wasn’t included in the list of ten, I’d have to say the Townes Van Zandt cover “Pancho and Lefty” is my tops, no contest.
- Rockabilly and country music artist Bobby Lord passed away on Saturday after struggling from a number of illnesses. The former television host and Grand Ole Opry member was 74.
- Former American Idol runner-up and current Gone Country cast member Diana DeGarmo has moved to Nashville to pursue her dreams of country pop super-stardom. Her lifestyle certainly oozes country authenticity:
“I figured if I want to do it, I’ve got to be here,” she says. “So I’m here. I’ve been living the country life. I had wild turkeys in my carport a couple of days ago, and I about had a heart attack. I have deer in my yard all the time. I had some country history, so I’ve had a lot of old friends come out of the woodwork and say, ‘Finally! You finally came back from the dark side!’
- Brad Paisley says it sounds pompous to talk about, but one of the things that has helped his tour the most is hiring a caterer. He felt like he had better food in grade school and high school before hiring his caterer, and now he says his crew’s morale is at an all-time high.
- Glenn Gamboa suggests that part of the reason Carrie Underwood’s live performances don’t match the intensity of other artists’ live shows, like headliner Keith Urban’s, is because her songs rely on her big voice — there’s no instrumentation or showmanship to hide behind.
- Ricky Schroder has been writing a screenplay “about an up-and-coming Nashville star who falls in love with a young bull rider,” and intends to discuss the script with Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift. He didn’t have Carrie Underwood in mind for the script, but apparently she’s willing to take on something light if it comes a long.
- Commenting on the accelerated pace between Ashton Shepherd’s signing, first single release and album release, Universal Music Group Nashville chairman Luke Lewis says:
“Some people would accuse us of rushing it, but a lot of it had to do with a feeling that it would be great to capture her work and her songs before they became affected by the business.”
Read Matt C.’s glowing review of Sounds So Good from earlier this morning.
- The prolific Billy Yates discusses how he balances his many roles with Cindy Watts. As a songwriter Yates has had cuts by numerous mainstream artists as well as “Choices” and “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair” by George Jones.
- John Carter Cash and Cindy Cash plan to have a birthday celebration next weekend in memory of their late father, who would have been 76 on February 26th. The celebration will take place at the Fender Center in Corona, CA.
- Craig Shelburne has an interesting write-up on the hilarious The Doyle and Debbie Show.
- Tim McGraw’s “Let It Go” was dubbed 2007’s Best Country Album by Playboy Magazine. (via ggcolumn)
- When Rodney Atkins first started promotional work for his current album he was working out of a rental car with an acoustic guitar. Now, he has two tour buses, a band, and is on Brad Paisley’s tour.
- Songwriter and painter Tom Russell compares the two art forms and philosophizes on music videos relationship to songwriting:
“They ruined it in a lot of ways when they started the video revolution 18 years ago because they over-visualized songs, and country music especially. They watered down the listeners’ ability to visualize it on their own, which is what it’s all about. Songs are very visual things that are outside our grasp. It’s such a weird, elusive thing, the creative part of songwriting.”
- 20 Questions with Allison Moorer from PopMatters and in another article she says the running theme on her latest album, Mockingbird, is strength.
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LeAnn Rimes - “What I Cannot Change” When LeAnn Rimes enters a recording studio, she carries with her the most impressive instrument in the room.
Kellie Pickler - “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful” Coming from Kellie Pickler, it’s like a rich man telling the beggar that his soul is rich and that’s better than all the money in the world.
Lee Ann Womack - “Last Call” It’s not her strongest song, but it’s well written with a good performance, and despite the dull internal conflict, it’s rife with emotional depth.
Brad Paisley - “Waitin’ On a Woman” Bizarrely, it took a song written by someone other than Brad Paisley for radio to hear what the Paisley style can truly accomplish.
Merle Haggard at the Ryman Auditorium: Of the Haggard classics, “Silver Wings,” “The Way I Am” and crowd-favorite “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” were performed with confident ease while “Kern River” was sung with inspired tenderness and “Back to Earth,” from 2007’s Last of the Breed, contained more than a trace of Willie’s nasally twang. 
One of an emerging wave of artists empowered by decreasing production costs and a rapidly changing distribution landscape, Kelleigh Bannen has taken a do-it-yourself approach to her debut album, Radio Skies.
The two-time Dancing With The Stars champion, Julianne Hough, recently took some time to answer questions for The 9513 in this exclusive interview.
After cutting ties with Warner Bros. Records, Ray Scott decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns and form Jethropolitan Records, a place where he can get back to the blood and guts of what he terms “real country music,” the kind of stuff you don’t hear on radio anymore.
Catch up on Nashville Star through Matt C.'s live blog. Episode I | Episode II | Episode III | Episode IV
Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, and Country Music by Dana Jennings When Jennings addresses modern country in the final chapter, he leaves you with the impression that it just can’t tap into the primal psyche the same way the classics that served as his nursery rhymes did.Tagged In This Article
Allison Moorer // Ashton Shepherd // Billy Yates // Bobby Lord // Brad Paisley // Carrie Underwood // Diana DeGarmo // George Jones // Grand Ole Opry // John Carter Cash // Keith Urban // Miranda Lambert // Rodney Atkins // Taylor Swift // Tim McGraw // Tom Russell // Willie Nelson
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11 Comments
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February 18, 2008 at 4:34 pm Permalink
Bobby Lord was one of those rock-a-billy artists who had considerable regional success during the 1950s without cracking the National charts. Columbia issued 19 singles on Bobby Lord without ever issuing an LP. Some,such as “Hawkeye”, sold extremely well but over too extended a period for the charts to pick up (it sold well into six figures)
He was a talented singer, a great storyteller and an all-around good guy that I had the pleasure of meeting on two occasions
February 18, 2008 at 5:55 pm Permalink
Was Let It Go the only country album they listened to?
February 18, 2008 at 6:24 pm Permalink
Paul - Good stuff, Paul. I always like hearing first hand accounts of people meeting artists, and unfortunately I hadn’t heard of Bobby Lord until now.
Jim - I wish that were the case, but Living Hard, Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Wagonmaster were in the running, too.
February 18, 2008 at 6:58 pm Permalink
Paul introduced me to Bobby Lord’s music a couple months ago and I was just listening to some of his stuff a few days ago. I liked the song Paul mentioned, “Hawkeye,” along with “Looking for a Cold Lonely Winter” and “Fall Away.” Sad to see him go. Here’s a video I found of him performing for anyone interested.
February 18, 2008 at 8:54 pm Permalink
Favorite Willie Nelson songs:
1) “Darkness On The Face of the Earth” - never a single but a great song
2) “Undo The Right” Johnny Bush’s version is better but Willie’s is good , too
3) “Bloody Mary Morning” - we’ve all had one of these, nicht wahr?
4) “What A Way To Live” - again the Johnny Bush recording is better but Willie also gets to the essense of the song. These first four songs are what Willie writes better than anyone else - songs of depair
5) “Faded Love” - this Bob Wills classic recorded with Ray Price and Crystal Gayle is country harmony at its very finest
6) “Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain” - this one wasn’t written by Willie (it was written by Fred Rose and recorded in the 1940s by Hank Williams and by Roy Acuff but Willie certainly nailed it.
7) “Family Bible” - the hit was by Claude Gray but Willie’s own version of a song he wrote (and sold) captures the right blend of reverence and nostalgia
8) “Lily Dale” with Darrell McCall - another great ballad. Willie’s real forte as a vocalist is ballads, not the outlaw country nonsense
9) “On the Road Again” (1980) - okay - so he can do uptempo
10) “You Don’t Know Me” - a loving tribute to the music of old friend Cindy Walker
Obviously , one could make a list of 50 songs without much loss in quality from these - my #11 would be Willie’s recording of “Three Days” a hit for Faron Young but better sung by Willie - another great song of despair. My list was getting top heavy with these songs but I love them - yeah
February 19, 2008 at 7:21 am Permalink
Willie! My ten favorites, in random order”
“She is Gone”, “I Never Cared For You”, “Bloody Mary Morning”, “Gotta Get Drunk”, “The Harder They Come”, “It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way”, “Yesterday’s Wine”, “Rainbow Connection”, “The Troublemaker”, “Always on My Mind.”
February 19, 2008 at 8:19 am Permalink
I laugh at the comment about Carrie Underwood having no intensity in her performances and then a suggestion about her performing in a movie — does that not seem a little strange???
February 19, 2008 at 9:54 am Permalink
Recording: “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”
Song: “Crazy”
February 19, 2008 at 11:13 am Permalink
My personal favourite Willie song is “Always on My Mind.”
February 19, 2008 at 2:36 pm Permalink
by far, the best willie performance i’ve ever heard can be found on a cd entitled ’spirit’ (it came out in 1996). the name of the song is ‘your memory won’t die in my grave’. his vocal performance on that song is simply devastating. it proves what a great vocalist he really is.
and i can’t distill my favorite willie nelson songs down into a top-10. it simply can’t be done. his output (prolific, to say the least) is only matched by a handful of individuals in popular music. a truly gifted musician. top-10? can’t do it. :)
February 20, 2008 at 6:41 pm Permalink
“Lukenbach Texas” but I love “Georgia”, specifically the Ray Charles version.
Brad Paisley is just about infallibie in my book.
Diana Degarmo is still listed as pop/r&b on myspace. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy somebody becoming a country singer over night. She may also want to remove her profile picture on myspace if she’d like to be accepted. Some people need interview coaches. I don’t think she should have repeatedly mentioned how she never wanted to be in country music. Apparently hanging with Dee Snider and Bobby Brown makes you country? (Haha, come on - at least give that joke to me!) Only so many reality tv people will be accepted by country radio. That number is close to peaking if it hasn’t already.
I want to see people make it the old fashioned way. Everybody is going to get success at different speeds and different ways. But I’d like to see more than a tv spot or a couple auditions. A genuine interest, you know?
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