Album Reviews

The term “singer/songwriter” hadn’t yet been coined when the “hotter’n a depot stove” 29 year-old songwriter Willie Nelson stepped into the studio to record his debut album for Liberty Records. Back then, you were either a songwriter or a singer, though of course there were a very few who were both. Here Nelson proves he was one of them.

Nelson had released a couple of unsuccessful records a few years earlier. He moved to Nashville in 1960. No label would sign him. He got hired by a publishing company and began writing songs made famous by others including “Crazy” (Patsy Cline), “Pretty Paper” (Roy Orbison) and “Funny How Time Slips Away” (Billy Walker).

Liberty Records signed him in 1961 and into Owen Bradley’s Quonsut Hut Studios he went to record what turned out to be the album’s two singles “Touch Me” and “The Part Where I Cry”. Producer Joe Allison, unhappy with the results, moved the remaining sessions to Los Angeles where the rest of the album was recorded under the musical direction of Billy Strange, who went on to become a “Wrecking Crew” member, playing on Pet Sounds and many other classic albums of the era.

This cryfest of an album consists of a dozen deliciously melodramatic midtempo “poor me” songs. Nelson’s idiosyncratic singing style, particularly his unusual and unpredictable phrasing were there from the beginning.

Since this album serves as a singer showcase, Nelson’s voice is way upfront in the mix and the three-dimensionality plus an overabundant echo typical of that era puts Willie almost in your lap. The backing musicians are mostly way back and in the case of the background singers’ “oohing and aahing”—another artifact of that era— that’s fortunate!

Look, Stardust this is not but it’s a collection of 12 Nelson tear jerkers like “Darkness on the Face of the Earth” and “Where My House Lives” that somehow turns “down in the dumps” self-pity into excruciating pleasure—especially if you’ve ever been there. Yes, both the production sound and maudlin sentiments are somewhat outdated but so what?

Matt Lutthans mastered at 45rpm on the finally fully up and perfectly running The Mastering Lab’s tube-based cutting system now housed at Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas. How great it is to see the TML-M stamp on two brand new slabs of 180g QRP pressed records. Housed in gatefold Stoughton Press “Tip on” jacket. Willie Nelson fans will want to have this.

Lutthans