Album Review – Willie Nelson’s “Bluegrass”
In 90 years of life, some 75 years in music, and around a hundred original albums of one version or another, Willie Nelson has just about done it all. But he hadn’t done a bluegrass record, or really even a bluegrass song henceforth, save for maybe his revved-up version of “Bloody Mary Morning.” His primary influences were always Western Swing, Django Reinhardt, and the classic country songwriters that came before him like Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams.
But with the way bluegrass is such a hot commodity these days, and Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings are instilling new life in the subgenre—including a recent collaboration Strings did with Willie called “California Sober“—why not cut a record of some of your classics done bluegrass style for posterity? So Willie once again partners up with producer Buddy Cannon, and they enlisted a bunch of super pickers to go to work.
Willie Nelson wasn’t very bluegrass before, and even now when he intentionally sets out to make a bluegrass album he’s still only kinda bluegrass at best. Since the song material is country standards, some of the songs utilize waltz and shuffle beats—and Willie’s unique phrasing isn’t really intuitive to the bluegrass discipline—it’s just as fair to label this as an acoustic album as it is something akin to Flatt & Scruggs.
That’s more of an observation than a criticism though, because the pickin’ is still really great, and so are the songs, and so is Willie’s singing, despite the advanced age. The album just doesn’t have the tempo or gas you often expect from a bluegrass record, and for completely understandable reasons. Perhaps if they had chosen bluegrass standards as opposed to Willie standards, our brains would pick up better on the bluegrass intentions. But what you get here is still not bad at all.
This doesn’t feel like one of those late career masterworks that Willie has been releasing here lately, even if it goes on to win a Grammy award, which it very well might. It’s one of those records you may listen to a few times and enjoy just fine, but only return to a few select tracks. As mentioned previously, “Bloody Mary Morning” lends itself to a bluegrass treatment, and it gets a good one here. Though you may not expect it on the surface, “Still is Still Moving to Me” is straight fire when rendered in the bluegrass discipline and is worth cherry picking for any playlist.
Though the album starts off slow, the instrumentation never falters. Joining Willie on the record are an all-star cast including Rob Ickes (dobro), Dan Tyminski (mandolin), Aubrey Haynie (fiddle), Ron Block (banjo), Josh Martin (acoustic guitar), Barry Bales (upright bass), Seth Taylor (mandolin), Bobby Terry (acoustic guitar, gut string guitar), and of course Mickey Raphael on harmonica.
If Willie Nelson wants to do a bluegrass record, who’s going to quibble with him? It may not be 100% bluegrass or or new and original material. But it’s bluegrass enough, and it’s Willie Nelson, which means it’s still pretty damn good.
1 1/2 Guns Up (7.5/10)
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September 18, 2023 @ 7:19 am
As a bluegrass player, it normally bothers me when an artist thinks that bluegrass = go faster and add a banjo! The go bluegrass albums end up all sounding the same in that way. It’s reductive, and bluegrass is so much more nuanced than that. I’m glad Willie didn’t fall into that trap.
September 18, 2023 @ 7:54 am
I don’t play Bluegrass but I totally agree. To the layman, if there’s a banjo then it’s bluegrass. Bluegrass music has a certain cadence, rhythm and format all its own that isn’t really the same when you just try to do “x song but bluegrass”.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:00 pm
I agree with both of you. I don’t think that bluegrass has to be fast. But since speed is what showcases the instrumentation and at its heart it is music meant to dance to, tempo is definitely an element to it. It’s not just the tempo, but the combination of cadences and rhythm that in my opinion make this album more “bluegrass-like” than bluegrass, period.
That’s not a knock on the project whatsoever. I just want to set realistic expectations.
September 18, 2023 @ 8:55 am
It’s Willie…love it or leave it.
September 18, 2023 @ 9:36 am
Willie Nelson & banjos??? How many remember, as I do, Willie’s definition of “perfect pitch,” which he described as tossing the banjo into the trash can and hitting the accordion that was already in there!
September 18, 2023 @ 11:28 am
Tex,
I pointed this out in the story Trig ran announcing this album was in the works. A commentor or two gave me grief for it. It was almost like they just couldn’t believe that their hero, Ol’ Willie, genuinely dislikes banjo. Oh the horror…but I think at this point, Willie’s just doing this so he can check off another box. Bluegrass album, check. Reggae album, check. Western Swing album, check. Jazz standards albums, check. And so on.
Call it a bucket list kinda thing.
September 20, 2023 @ 6:44 pm
@Kevin– I don’t know whether this constitutes giving you grief–It probably does–but no, you haven’t convinced me that Willie Nelson hates or dislikes the banjo, based on the fact that he recounted the banjo-hits-accordion line…..in a book titled “The Facts of Life and Other Dirty Jokes.” The book is a book with a lot of jokes, and that’s one of them. The joke is funny because it makes one think of a lot of bad banjo players and overbearing accordian players. You gotta give me more than a snipped like that.
Willie is a great musician. I’m sure he appreciates a great banjo player like Bela Fleck more than I do. Or the “Dueling” banjo player of “Deliverance” fame.
September 21, 2023 @ 9:45 am
Lucky,
I’ve no beef with you either way. I am a Willie fan and a bluegrass fan, and I like banjo. My thought on all of this had come about over time. I’ve noticed that in 150 albums, prior to this one, banjo only appears on one album of Willie’s. This new one makes 2 out of 151 albums. Then I got to thinking about Willie’s big influences: Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Hank, Ray Price, and Django. None of those were known for banjo. Then I thought about his rural Texas upbringing and realized banjo ain’t a big thing in that area, it’s more an Appalachian,southern, and Midwest instrument. Of course I read the book and saw that quote, so to me it made sense. Willie is not a banjo fan. I will dig out that book and look for the quote, but I could swear he makes a few other remarks about his belief in the truth of that joke. Could be wrong I suppose, but that’s my take.
September 18, 2023 @ 10:01 am
Sounds pretty good, although I don’t know that I need to pick this one up.
Somehow I missed that Jim Lauderdale released another bluegrass album recently (The Long and Lonesome Letting Go on 9/15). So far, I’ve only listened to the title track. Sounds pretty damn good.
September 18, 2023 @ 5:42 pm
Lauderdale can do no wrong when it comes to bluegrass. He gets what a lot o’ bluegrass groups miss: hot pickin’ is awesome, but at the end of the day, it’s about the song.
September 20, 2023 @ 6:09 am
Agreed. I think this is about his10th bluegrass release and each one is a winner. I like that his bluegrass music manages to sound traditional and is also fresh at the same point. I think it has a lot to do with his gift for melody. And that voice of his works so well in bluegrass, I think.
September 18, 2023 @ 1:52 pm
I liked it, it’s certainly not The Kentucky Colonel’s but it’s exactly what I would have expected from Willie. It’s definitely not his first outing in bluegrass, he did was featured on Circle 3 on a duet with Tom Petty. Of course neither are traditional. I think his Country Music album from 2009/10 is maybe closer as far as songs go. Either way, I definitely enjoyed having it pop up on Spotify unexpectedly.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:00 pm
This reminds me so much of the T. Bone Burnett-produced “Country Music” in 2010. It’s beautiful yet too clean/polished. I’d give it a thumbs up but there are 40+ Willie records I’ll seek out before this. I may revisit this in winter when days are shorter and we’re huddled up inside.
September 18, 2023 @ 3:56 pm
Someone mentioned 2010’s ‘Country Music,’ and I think there’s a good comparison to be made there. It’s not my all-time favorite, but it is good. I really enjoyed the version of Good Hearted Woman in this one.
September 18, 2023 @ 6:35 pm
Waylon was my man. But for Bluegrass, try J.D. Crowe! Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs with his band. All sorts and speeds. Keith was a ballad man, but his bluegrass ballads were outstanding.
September 19, 2023 @ 5:59 am
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did some bluegrass pretty good with the Circle recordings 1, 2 + 3 including old a mix of old and new players as they came and went. I love the continuity in their sound through the years. Hopefully, they will circle back around in their plain Dirt fashion again in this decade.
September 19, 2023 @ 7:28 am
Hello everybody, Those two songs are nice, technically well crafted, pleasant melody for track one, sad for the second. Not sure if I would like an entire album like that but I’ll give it a try.
September 19, 2023 @ 8:49 am
It really is not a bad album with a bluegrass influence is now I would describe it. Willie Nelson…..incredible artist. Definitely a legend in his own lifetime.
September 19, 2023 @ 1:24 pm
Merle tried his hand at bluegrass, with an album late in his career. I also remember Buck releasing a good version of “Ruby” that charted well. It seems that a lot of the greats enjoy dipping their toes in other genres. Good for Willie.