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

Biography of Kris Kristofferson

The '70s was a decade ripe and waiting for rebels. The Nashville establishment, though, which had sold a lot of records with the bland "Nashville Sound," wasn't quite ready for this songwriting former soldier who, with long beard and dressed in jeans, in 1970 walked on stage at the Country Music Association awards and got his award for "Sunday Morning Coming Down," a song that friend Johnny Cash had made a hit. When in the next year Janis Joplin had a hit with "Me and Bobby McGee", he was on his way, anti-establishment or not. Sammi Smith's version of "Help Me Make It through the Night" had also been a hit in 1971 --on both the country and the pop chart-- and suddenly Kristofferson's creative lyrics and memorable music made the establishment forget about his image and created a cult following.In 1973, the year he and singer Rita Coolidge married, The Silver Tongued Devil and I went gold. Meanwhile, his duets with Coolidge sold well and produced two Grammys for them. It was at about this time that his record sales began to dip, so he stepped up a film acting career. Role followed role, among them Cisco Pike, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (co-starring Bob Dylan), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Blume in Love, Rollover, etc. Critics liked his work on the silver screen, writing that Kristofferson had real talent, that he wasn't only a singer who might sell tickets. He charted again, right into the '80s, but nothing like his phenomenal sales of the previous decade, though his collaboration with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings on Highwayman (1985) produced another #1 album. This gifted songwriter, performer, and actor made success easier for subsequent musicians who, like him, don't fit into the mold. ~ David Vinopal

Biography of Johnny Cash

It is almost un-American not to like Johnny Cash. He sings songs about trains and God and farmers and Indians. And he's been around forever. Wasn't "I Walk the Line" in the '50s sometime? And wasn't he in jail for a while? No, he sang in jail -- that's right! He's the guy who sang "Folsom Prison Blues." And he's still making records, right? How can you not like him?The trick is to get past the myth and all the hype and just listen to some of the music.Pick a period -- there are lots to choose from. I'd recommend starting at the beginning, maybe with the aforementioned "I Walk the Line." Or you might go back several months to the original version of "Folsom Prison Blues." There are no convicts screaming in the background here, but it's a mighty fine record. In fact, many of Cash's early recordings for the Sun label are about as close to perfect as one can imagine. Things couldn't get much simpler. Perfectly simple, you might say.Cash's early 45s, even his first album, feature just Johnny Cash and his two-man band, The Tennessee Two: a minimalist electric guitar and acoustic bass. You might think, "If there are just the two of them, they must do some mighty fancy picking, right?" Put it this way: the musical limitations of The Tennessee Two make Johnny Cash sound like Pavarotti. Rather than embellish Cash's strikingly sparse sound, Sun Label owner Sam Phillips let the band's "boom-chicka-boom" and Cash's lonely baritone vocals hang in an eerie sea of echo that, just months before, had swathed the vocals of Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. These were friendly waters. The power of these early records (add "Train of Love" and "Big River" to the list) is unmistakable thirty-five years after they were made.To his credit, Johnny Cash's recorded sound has remained almost unchanged across the decades. Like many survivors of the halcyon days at Sun Records, Cash has battled a host of demons including substance abuse and personal tragedies. He has emerged strong and fit for battle. Considering the immense amount of material in his recorded legacy, there is little to be ashamed of. There are few artists with as instantly recognizable a sound and style as Johnny Cash, and few as worthy of the attention of a whole new generation of listeners.Johnny Cash should be approached chronologically. Stay away from his later (Polygram) work until you've digested his Columbia years (1958 through the mid '80s), and don't enter the Columbia years until you can pass a quiz on his Sun period. By 1993, Cash felt estranged from the new country movement and successfully freed himself from Polygram to join forces with rock auteur Rick Rubin on American Records. It turned out to be an inspired decision. ~ Hank Davis

Biography of Waylon Jennings

The ultimate Outlaw, Waylon Jennings squeezed a lot of recording and a lot more living into the years between touring as Buddy Holly's bass player and recording the Highwayman II album in 1991. And all the time he fought against the lush but sterile Nashville Sound and against the Nashville establishment record labels that produced this sameness of sound. With fellow Texan and close friend Willie Nelson, Jennings changed the way things were done in Music City, including insisting on recording with their own bands, rather than with homogenized studio musicians of the Nashville feudal system.In the early '60s, Jennings and his band the Waylors were doing well out of Phoenix. Chet Atkins learned about the talented singer and offered him a contract. Jennings's first singles did well enough ("Anita You're Dreaming," for example), but the husky, powerful voice, the faded-jeans image, and the raw and emotional material delivered with a rock beat scared some people in Nashville. He enjoyed moderate success through the 60s, recording and touring and building up an enthusiastic audience (cult would be accurate) for this unique sound.In spite of all the talent, Jennings wasn't to become a major star until the '70s brought such influential albums as Good Hearted Woman (1972) and Honky Tonk Heroes, (1973). Then came the landmark album that sold millions, Wanted: the Outlaws (1976), that featured Jennings, Jessi Colter (his wife), Tompall Glaser, and Willie Nelson, performing eleven previously released songs. Jennings was a superstar and the outlaws had won. As further proof, in 1978 the Waylon & Willie album was a runaway hit, remaining on the country and pop charts for over a year. His singles did as well as the albums, with such hits as "Luckenbach, Texas," "The Wurlitzer Prize," "I've Always Been Crazy," and "Amanda." Meanwhile, the Outlaw clones proliferated, leading (thanks to the mechanical bull movie) to the Urban Cowboy fad, and prompting Jennings to pen and record "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got out of Hand." But Jennings had racked up eight consecutive gold albums while keeping his musical integrity, and the direction of country music had been changed.With his superstar status intact, Jennings recorded regularly in the '80s, but his popularity slipped a notch or two, having in fact nowhere to go but down. In 1985, Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson produced their Highwayman album, a best-seller that spawned a #1 single of the same title. Jennings, having done his music his way, has earned the right to rest on his laurels, should he choose to. ~ David Vinopal