Hey Y’all,
At home right now, listening to the exploding sky in Nashville on a Fourth of July night in America. I’ve always loved fireworks, but didn’t get around to joining in on the fun this year. My favorite 4th’s were spent at my grandma’s house “out in the country” with my cousins. We’d buy all sorts of cheap fireworks. My brother and I would keep them in shoe boxes under our beds. Sometimes we’d shoot bottle rockets out of our bedroom window at passing cars in the middle of the night, but that’s another story for another time.
Wanted to share a recent write up I was asked to pen for American Songwriter magazine. It’s a short review of a new Willie Nelson compilation.
Crazy...
During the month of May, Universal Music peppered nearly every genre on the shelf with releases from its budget compilation series ICON. Everyone from the Gin Blossoms to The Mamas & The Papas to New Edition to Louis Armstrong and Hank Williams got the ICON treatment, and while most of the CD’s feature little in the way of rare or unreleased material, the selection of lesser-known and live tracks for the Willie Nelson compilation makes it a notable exception.
By focusing on Nelson’s output since the closing years of the ’90’s, ICON – Willie Nelson avoids being a redundant addition to the artist’s already-available selection of compilation packages. The release opens with hit-and-miss picks from Nelson’s recent duets collections. An unremarkable “Mendocino County Line” duet with Lee Ann Womack is culled from The Great Divide (Lost Highway, 2002), while a rendition of “Night Life” from Milk Cow Blues (2000, Island Records) finds Nelson’s tête-à-tête with B.B. King bringing a stinging, ringing energy to an old chestnut.
The real treats on the album are the cherry-picked selections that highlight Nelson’s collaborations with superstar producers.
Read more here.
Joe Nolan <3
