He toured minor-league baseball parks with Bob Dylan earlier this year. His latest album puts Tom Waits material next to Toby Keith’s, and includes duets with the popular jazz crooner Norah Jones and the ever-respected alt-country goddess Lucinda Williams.
He’s shown up on the television series Monk and is playing Uncle Jesse in the currently filming movie version of The Dukes of Hazzard. And he continues to be self-deprecating, sportingly mocking everything from his look to his trouble with the IRS.
About the only thing Willie Nelson hasn’t done recently is play the Quad Cities. Two shows at the Adler were cancelled for health reasons, but with any luck, the outlaw-country legend will be intact and in good voice on December 14 for this long-awaited show.
Nelson’s latest record, It Always Will Be, was released in late October by the Lost Highway label and has been favorably compared to his legendary output from a quarter-century ago. Anchored by Nelson’s graceful and ageless voice, the singer-songwriter shuffles easily from style to style, inhabiting each of them comfortably with casual arrangements and warm, clean vocals that don’t sound like they come from a septuagenarian.
It Always Will Be won’t bowl you over. It’s too laid back for that, and it only includes three songs written by Willie. And on the three duets – including one with daughter Paula Nelson on a song she wrote – the living legend graciously cedes the spotlight to his guest artist.
Yet that’s one of the record’s strengths. Nelson doesn’t impose himself on the songs; they foist themselves on him, and he adjusts accordingly. In his duet with Jones on “Dreams Come True,” the setting is simple jazz piano, and Nelson’s vocals are precise, earnest, and a bit awkward – perfect for the song’s corniness.
Nelson is a master at choosing the material, too, focusing on songs to which he can offer something. His version of Toby Keith & Chuck Gannon’s “Tired” is much better suited to the 71-year-old Nelson than the three-decades-younger country star. Nelson sings it with clarity and not the melancholy or exhaustion one might expect; he lets the words do the work instead of overplaying the vocals.
And on Tom Waits’ “Picture in a Frame,” Nelson strips out the scorched vocals and standard-issue Waits oddity, reducing the simple, joyful song to its simple, joyful sentiment and an unobtrusive fireside country track.
The album’s only misstep – and it’s a big one – is loud-and-proud treatment of Greg Allman’s “Midnight Rider,” completely out-of-place on this subdued record and downright bizarre as a closer, particularly after the gentle Western sound of Nelson’s “Texas.”
Still, it’s easy to forgive an icon such as Nelson. When someone who’s been around as long as he has makes an album this good, we can pretend it has 13 tracks instead of 14.
Willie Nelson will perform on Tuesday, December 14, at the Adler Theatre in downtown Davenport. Ellis Kell & Detroit Larry Davison will open, and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $35 to $55.
About the only thing Willie Nelson hasn’t done recently is play the Quad Cities. Two shows at the Adler were cancelled for health reasons, but with any luck, the outlaw-country legend will be intact and in good voice on December 14 for this long-awaited show.
Nelson’s latest record, It Always Will Be, was released in late October by the Lost Highway label and has been favorably compared to his legendary output from a quarter-century ago. Anchored by Nelson’s graceful and ageless voice, the singer-songwriter shuffles easily from style to style, inhabiting each of them comfortably with casual arrangements and warm, clean vocals that don’t sound like they come from a septuagenarian.
It Always Will Be won’t bowl you over. It’s too laid back for that, and it only includes three songs written by Willie. And on the three duets – including one with daughter Paula Nelson on a song she wrote – the living legend graciously cedes the spotlight to his guest artist.
Yet that’s one of the record’s strengths. Nelson doesn’t impose himself on the songs; they foist themselves on him, and he adjusts accordingly. In his duet with Jones on “Dreams Come True,” the setting is simple jazz piano, and Nelson’s vocals are precise, earnest, and a bit awkward – perfect for the song’s corniness.
Nelson is a master at choosing the material, too, focusing on songs to which he can offer something. His version of Toby Keith & Chuck Gannon’s “Tired” is much better suited to the 71-year-old Nelson than the three-decades-younger country star. Nelson sings it with clarity and not the melancholy or exhaustion one might expect; he lets the words do the work instead of overplaying the vocals.
And on Tom Waits’ “Picture in a Frame,” Nelson strips out the scorched vocals and standard-issue Waits oddity, reducing the simple, joyful song to its simple, joyful sentiment and an unobtrusive fireside country track.
The album’s only misstep – and it’s a big one – is loud-and-proud treatment of Greg Allman’s “Midnight Rider,” completely out-of-place on this subdued record and downright bizarre as a closer, particularly after the gentle Western sound of Nelson’s “Texas.”
Still, it’s easy to forgive an icon such as Nelson. When someone who’s been around as long as he has makes an album this good, we can pretend it has 13 tracks instead of 14.
Willie Nelson will perform on Tuesday, December 14, at the Adler Theatre in downtown Davenport. Ellis Kell & Detroit Larry Davison will open, and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $35 to $55.
