John Hult
All right.. I’m back for another semester of stellar music news and snotnosed reviews. I’ve missed you all over the break, and I know you’ve missed me. Don’t lie to yourself, you know you have.
Well, I hope you’ve had a marvelous holiday break and I wish you luck with that whole indecent exposure thing?I’m sure it didn’t happen the way the cops said it did.
The first album to face the mighty pen this year comes from a living legend in every sense of the cliched words.
Willie Nelson’s “The Great Divide” is the newest from the 230-plus-albums-strong workhorse.
Willie must have received a call from Carlos Santana sometime after he took home an album of the year paperweight, er, Grammy for 1998′s “Supernatural.”
Carlos must have thought that Willie could benefit from a collaboration with rock’s whiny crudbucket prince Rob Thomas. After all, Matchbox Twenty’s weepy/whiny frontman does have a knack for writing sticks-in-your-head pop rock and his name carries a lot of weight with the sensitive sweater set.
OK, so that never happened. Willie and Carlos are probably pals, though.
Along with the songwriting of Thomas?his horrifying whine is thankfully not featured?”The Great Divide” also shares “Supernatural” vet Matt Serletic as producer and songwriter.
I really wanted to hate this record. It just seems wrong to shrink-wrap an American original into a stylish and contemporary commercial package.
But as soon as the cup of cold blue coffee that is Nelson’s signature timbre hit my ears, there were no valid complaints.
Nelson, like George Jones and Johnny Cash, has an overpowering, singular charisma that elevates even the worst of his work?or in this case, the work of others?to a level that most artists could only wish for.
Even when singing a song with Kid Rock or covering Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” Nelson’s voice carries a unbearably true and honest American experience in every note.
Everything about this record is polished, cleaned up and modernized except Willie. All of the distorted rock guitars, trumpets or synth symphonics could cut out at any moment. As long as Willie kept singing, you’d keep listening?assuming you like his style.
And that’s not to say that the classic Nelson voice is all this album has to offer, either. “Mendocina County Line,” his duet with contemporary country’s premiere songbird Lee Ann Womack, is easily one of the two high points.
The other truly great moment comes as Willie sings the words of former Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin in “This Face.”
Although “Maria (Shut up and Kiss Me)” and his duets with Sheryl Crow and Bryan McKnight may have been better placed on different records from different artists, even these don’t prompt too quick a song-switching.
So what is a reader to take from all of this?
If you’re a Nelson fan, “The Great Divide” is definitely one for the collection, but then again, which one wouldn’t be?
But if you’re just interested in adding some Willie to the collection, pick up Stardust” or “Red-Headed Stranger” first. After that, you may not need this.
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