Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

album cover

A Country Concept Album

When Columbia Records signed Willie Nelson in 1974, the label thought it was in business with a proven commercial-country hit-maker, the author of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" and Faron Young's "Hello Walls." The executives had no idea this restless spirit, then associated with the ascendant "outlaw" wing of country, would immediately take advantage of the terms of his contract: As Nelson recalled, "It was the first time that I had quote artistic control end quote." His response: a twisted tale of a troubled preacher who murders his wife and her new lover, then hits the road.

The songs are short, seemingly disconnected drifter laments arranged into a ragtag travelogue. Often a single guitar provides the only accompaniment to Nelson's grandfatherly warble, and the "story" sometimes gets lost inside the character sketches. In the liner notes for the 2000 expanded edition, Nelson remembers the label as being "shocked" by this unconventional album, and then-president Bruce Lundvall concurs. At the time, Lundvall told label staffers "it may not be an important commercial album by Willie" but predicted it would become a significant part of the singer and songwriter's legacy.

Red Headed Stranger confounded those sales projections. It sold three million copies and established Nelson as a uniquely uncompromising crossover figure in country music, one of the few capable of massaging its enduring myths into newly compelling narratives. The album's interpretations of vintage songs sparkle like gold dust, while Nelson's connective-tissue originals, particularly "Time of the Preacher," update Hank Williams with a shot of wry. The expanded edition includes four eyebrow-raising tracks, including a dusty cover of Williams's "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" and Nelson's reworking of Bach's Minuet in G as, of all things, a ragged country waltz. Why this bit of delirium was snipped from the original remains a mystery.

Genre: Country
Released: 1975, Columbia (Reissued 2000)
Key Tracks: "Time of the Preacher," "Just As I Am," "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain"
Catalog Choice: Teatro
Next Stop: Johnny Cash: American Recordings
After That: George Jones: Cup of Loneliness

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