HIGH BIAS -- reissues

High Bias refreshed

WILLIE NELSON
The Essential Willie Nelson
(Columbia/Legacy)
Crazy: The Demo Sessions
(Sugar Hill)
That Willie Nelson is one of the Great American Artists goes without saying. That seems like a facetious statement, but let's face it: over a career spanning five decades and everything from poetic innovations to sentimental schlock, hardcore country to genre-defying experimentation, Willie (no one refers to him as Mr. Nelson) has made so much music that there's literally something for everyone in his canon. If you don't like his stripped-down, Americana saga Red Headed Stranger you may like his unusual take on great American standards Stardust instead. If you hate his crossover pop duets with Julio Iglesias and Ray Charles, you'll like his more purest albums with buddies Merle Haggard, Ray Price or Waylon Jennings. That he approaches every project with the purest of intentions—you can just hear him telling his management "But it'll be fun!" every time some hat act or easy listening pop star proposes a duet—only makes him more beloved by both casual, mainstream music fans and serious musicphiles alike. The guy can get away with pretty much anything.

Which means he's made a ridiculous amount of records. Few living artists can lay claim to as vast a catalog on as many labels. While this gives fans a wide variety of Willieana to pick through, it also means that it's extremely difficult to summarize the man's career on a mere two disks. However, Legacy has given it the old college try with The Essential Willie Nelson and, for the most part, done a pretty good job. Assembled in honor of Willie's 70th (!) birthday this year, Essential mainly sticks to the hits, as if it had a choice. Starting with a clutch of singles from the early 60s, including Willie's own takes on "Night Life," "Crazy," "Hello Walls" and "Funny How Time Slips Away" (all made famous by other singers), the two CDs run through all the familiar tunes. "On the Road Again," "Good Hearted Woman," "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," "Whiskey River," "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground," "Always On My Mind," "Pancho and Lefty" and, yes, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before"—they're all here. They're all familiar songs to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Willie or country radio or both—some might argue, in the case of "Always On My Mind," overly familiar—but it's nice to have them all in one place. The hits are augmented here by tunes not as well known, like the wonderful original "Uncloudy Day," his great take on Paul Simon's "Graceland" (if only the compilers had included his definitive version of Simon's "American Tune" as well), not-as-famous-but-equally-stellar singles like "Bloody Mary Morning" and "Shotgun Willie," his collaboration with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson on Jimmy Webb's "Highwayman." Unfortunately, as with any artist this prolific, there is some crap as well; the duet with Ray Charles on "Seven Spanish Angels" may be a decent Willie performance but it's an embarrassing one for the marble-mouthed Charles, and "One Time Too Many," the collaboration with Aerosmith, is simply a huge, steaming pile of feces. (At least it's the collection's last track, and thus easily skipped.) But the good stuff far outweighs the bad, and no amount of repetition can dull the shine on these classic American songs. [buy it]

Sugar Hill is paying homage to the 70th anniversary of Willie's birth in a more low-key way with the release of Crazy: The Demo Sessions. The disk consists of fifteen songs (plus some unlisted bonuses) cut between 1960 and 1966 for various publishers and record companies in Nashville, usually in collaboration with legendary songwriter Hank Cochran. Willie was struggling to make a career for himself in the mainstream country music establishment, which did not look kindly upon his idiosyncratic vocal style, and found that the best way to do it was through his songs. All of these tracks, some with a studio band, others with just Willie and his guitar, were originally cut in order to entice other, more popular singers to record them. Obviously, in the case of "Crazy," the original demo of which is included here, this paid off in spades, when Patsy Cline made it one of the best-known songs in the world—too bad Willie's never reaped the financial rewards of having written the most played song in jukebox history. Longtime country music fans will appreciate hearing these songs in their original form, but if you're not familiar with the better-known versions of tunes like "Three Days," "I Gotta Get Drunk" and "Things to Remember," you're in for a treat. Alongside lesser-known but amazing songs like "Opportunity to Cry," "Something to Think About," "Undo the Right" and "Darkness On the Face of the Earth," these songs make a case for Willie being quite possibly the best country songwriter in music history whose name doesn't begin with "Hank" and end with "Williams," and are damn good C&W performances in their own rights. The record also includes "I'm Still Here," a lonely ballad never before released or re-recorded anywhere by anyone. While it's undeniably an essential slab of country music history, Crazy: The Demo Sessions is also, by virtue of its great songs and stellar performances, an excellent record of pure music. Willie may be the one with a 70th birthday this year, but thanks to these wonderful albums we can all celebrate. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash

TOWNES VAN ZANDT
In the Beginning
(TVZ/Compadre)
When a beloved musician dies, the fans mourn not only because the artist was taken too soon (and it's always too soon, no matter the age or circumstances) but because there will be no new material. So finding new songs by a dead artist is like finding a pot of gold in an old strip mine. Townes Van Zandt fans can get out the jewelry scales, then, for In the Beginning, a collection of ten songs recorded by Van Zandt and Cowboy Jack Clement in 1966, a full two years before the release of the hard-living troubadour's first album For the Sake of the Song. Set in sparser environments than Clement would give him a couple of years later—only occasional use of strings, no choirs, mostly solo—Van Zandt was in fine voice, better than he would ever be again, frankly. Shockingly, all ten tunes are brand new (so to speak)—not a one among them was re-recorded at a later date, which is surprising for two reasons. One is that Van Zandt had a bad habit of re-recording his older tunes multiple times—how many versions of "Tecumseh Valley" can you name? The other is that all ten of these tunes are damn good, and it's surprising Van Zandt never revisited them. Beautiful ballads ("Waitin' For the Day," "When Your Dream Lovers Die," "Maryetta's Song"), neoclassic folk tunes ("Colorado Bound," "Gypsy Friday"), tough folk/blues cuts ("Black Crow Blues," "Big Country Blues"), even a couple of (gasp) rockers ("Black Widow Blues," "Black Jack Mama"), all excellent, all certainly worthy of performance or recording. The tapes may have been misplaced for 35 years, but that's no excuse for Van Zandt not to revive what turns out to be some of his best work. It's a mystery, but, ultimately, not a particularly important one. We have the songs now and In the Beginning is a new treasure in a rich catalog. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Woody Guthrie, Guy Clark, Willis Alan Ramsey