Willie Nelson - Nite Life: Greatest Hits & Rare Tracks 1959-1971


I had to include Willie in this weeks posts since he was in a dream I had the other night. His music has indeed dug it's way into my heart for years and I really cannot say enough positive things about the man. So, I will let the reviews for this on the internet speak -

"Long before Willie Nelson spearheaded the "outlaw country" movement, he made a go at mainstream country success, which, in the late 1950s and 1960s, meant "the Nashville sound." Nelson wrote songs with jazz and blues progressions, then recorded them with such non-traditional country instrumentation as piano, organ, saxophone, vibes, and lush background choruses. His best efforts from this period are collected on NITE LIFE, an album that spans the years between 1959 and 1971 and includes both hits and overlooked rarities. The hits include "Nite Life," "Hello Walls" (a big hit for Faron Young), "Funny How Time Slips Away," and perhaps the greatest song ever sold outright for $50, "Crazy." Throughout, Willie's love for and deep empathy with great American composers from Hoagy Carmichael to Hank Williams is abundantly evident. The trademark idiosyncratic guitar leads are missing, but Willie's syncopated vocal style is already fully formed. The final track, "Me and Paul," in which Willie lays bare his comfort with outsider status, points clearly toward his mega-star future."



1. Man With the Blues
2. What a Way to Live
3. Night Life
4. Rainy Day Blues
5. You'll Always Have Someone
6. Everything But You
7. Mr. Record Man
8. Hello Walls
9. Crazy
10. Touch Me
11. Funny How Time Slips Away
12. Am I Blue
13. Half a Man
14. Opportunity to Cry
15. San Antonio Rose
16. One in a Row
17. Bring Me Sunshine
18. Me and Paul


link in comments