Willie Nelson: A Beautiful Time (Columbia/digital outlets)

 |   |  1 min read

Willie Nelson: A Beautiful Time (Columbia/digital outlets)

While surprised that Paul McCartney – 80 next month – and septuagenarians Jagger'n'Richards are still touring, it's worth remembering Willie Nelson was writing hits when the Beatles were a bar band in Hamburg and the Stones hadn't formed.

Nelson – now 89 – is still on the road despite being unwell and has recorded 14 studio albums in the past decade. McCartney delivered three and the Stones, just one.

Admittedly Nelson – like Bob Dylan – has done a number of recordings of covers (Gershwin, Sinatra, Ray Price) but you can't deny the man's work ethic.

And he found time to record with Tami Neilson.

A Beautiful Time – his 72nd studio album – sounds like a country-framed, thoughtful farewell letter reflecting on a long life.

On Dusty Bottles he sings “there's something to be said for getting older, dusty bottles pour a finer glass of wine”; Leave You With A Smile is heartbreaking in its honest simplicity; I Don't Go Funerals mentions those he'll meet in the afterlife: Johnny Cash, Waylon, Patsy Cline among them

“I don't go to funerals and I won't be at mine,” he sings. “I'll be somewhere looking at loved ones left behind” before concluding it's been a good life.

Here too are behind-the-beat Willie treatments of Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song (“my friends are gone and my hair is grey”) and Lennon-McCartney's With a Little Help From My Friends.

And his distinctive, superb guitar playing alongside melancholy pedal steel.

On the hushed Energy Follows Thought he offers hard-won philosophy: “Be careful what you ask for, make sure it's really what you want, because your mind is made for thinking, and energy follows thought”.

And on the title track: “If I ever get old, I'll still love the road . . . when the last song's been played I'll look back and say I sure had a beautiful time”.

It's been a long road and Willie Nelson seems comfortable accepting his remarkable journey is coming to an end and he walks into the sunset.

You can hear A Beautiful Time at Spotify here


Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Half Japanese: Invincible (Fire)

Half Japanese: Invincible (Fire)

And now something for those hardy few who live in that small space where the Venn Diagrams of sci-fi and horror intersects with post-No Wave rock and indie-pop. The longtime on-going project of... > Read more

Various: Motown Love (Motown/Universal)

Various: Motown Love (Motown/Universal)

This triple-disc set suffers from the same problem as the previously released and quite dreadful Motown 50 collection: an unacceptable and unnatural inclusion of Michael Jackson/Jackson 5 and Diana... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

The Flys: Love and a Molotov Cocktail (1978)

The Flys: Love and a Molotov Cocktail (1978)

1977 was a confusing year in Britain: pub-rockers Dr Feelgood were at an all-time peak, the Sex Pistols, the Clash and others advanced the punk agenda, and off on the margins were power-pop bands... > Read more

RIENZI IN ROME: The man, the madness and the music

RIENZI IN ROME: The man, the madness and the music

Rome hadn't seen anything like him before, this strutting little fanatic who was so gifted with words he could move a crowd to mass action. A born propagandist, he was often invited into the... > Read more