183 - Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger

Country music concept album in full effect! So, if you pay close attention, Red Headed Stranger transports you to the Old West and tells a tale of a murderous preacher. If you don't pay much attention to lyrics (like myself), then this album is an exercise in Old West atmosphere. If the goal was to create a collection of music that tells a story and evokes a particular time and place, then mission accomplished. Then again, it's not quite that straight forward. Near the end of the album is “Bach Minuet in G.” Not really a country-western standard. Yet it fits right in with the rest of the collection (would that song be used in churches, thus tying in with the preacher story?).

The instrumentation is timeless and spare. It is easy to see much of this album being performed around a campfire at night during a cattle drive or some lonesome saloon. There is a quiet to this album that can torture a person if they are coming to this immediately after hearing uptempo music (such as Madonna's The Immaculate Collection, which shared space just above this in Spotify for the past week).

In the end, the problems I have with Red Headed Stranger all boil down to a difference in taste. There is nothing really "wrong" with the album. The songs are well crafted, performed, recorded, and mixed. The album is a work of art as a whole. Some people go ga-ga over Picasso's Cubist phase and others appreciate it but don't care for it. Same here.

Songs I Knew I Liked: “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”

Songs I Now Like: "Time of the Preacher" and “Remember Me (When the Candle Lights Are Gleaming)”

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: I wouldn't actively avoid this album, but the only reason why I would see myself agreeing to listening is if I were somehow talked into a western movie marathon one day and wanted music between features or if I go touring around the Southwest.