Biography of Willie Nelson

A lot of people, including lovers of country music, hadn't heard of Willie Nelson until 1975, the year that an old Roy Acuff song titled "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" made him famous to the multitudes and led to the first of his five Grammy awards. During the two previous decades, though, he had written hundreds of quality songs, played thousands of honky-tonks, and perfected his vocal style, which many think ranks among the best of any kind of popular American music. His "outlaw" and anti-establishment image, which now seems old hat, less than twenty years after its creation, was not an act but the real thing. His abundance of talent allowed him to back up this image; there's only one Willie Nelson.After a stint as a country DJ on a Fort Worth radio station, Nelson played bass with the Ray Price band, and Price recorded his "Night Life," now a country standard. Faron Young then cut "Hello Walls" and Patsy Cline, "Crazy" and "Funny How Time Slips Away": Nelson had made his reputation as a premier songwriter. (Though he never sang them as such, many of his songs are natural crossovers. Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Stevie Wonder, and Bing Crosby are a few of the stars who have recorded his songs.) He then borrowed members of Price's band and started on the road. Despite reasonable success, only when he moved back to Texas from Nashville did his singing start getting the attention it deserved. In this period before "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," he recorded three albums, including Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages, a concept album about a broken marriage, telling the point of view of both the husband and the wife. Nelson had ignored the prevalent "Nashville Sound" lushness and had succeeded.Starting in 1975, Nelson reached the top, in the process melding country and "hip" music while turning millions of younger listeners into fans. His Red-Headed Stranger, a concept album about the Old West, hit #1, as did Wanted: The Outlaws, with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. The Outlaws' national tour following this album created an explosion of interest in country music. Nelson, now a superstar, recorded a number of hit singles ("Remember Me," "Good-Hearted Woman," and others) before joining with Waylon Jennings in 1978 for Waylon and Willie, an album that quickly sold a million and locked both singers into the outlaw image for years. Stardust, a hit album of popular songs, showcased Nelson's versatility.In 1979, Nelson showed his acting talent in the well-received movie, Electric Horseman (with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda); Honeysuckle Rose was released a year later, drawing praise for Nelson's acting. The film's soundtrack album was another hit. The early '80s brought more superstardom, with "On the Road Again" and "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground."Nelson's contributions to country music are enormous. His unsurpassed vocal style, his tasteful and subtle guitar playing, his introduction of country music to millions of new listeners, his sophisticated yet real song compositions: these all show us what a unique and incomparable talent is Willie Nelson. And his Farm Aid benefits show us that his heart is where his music is. ~ David Vinopal