Maps of Music

Night and Day (1999)

Where the lyrics of Night and Day take you, and where it was really made.

Willie Nelson's 46th album is an instrumental record, and critics compared it to jazz and to the Buena Vista Social Club rather than to his country work.

Key places

Where Night and Day was recorded (1999)

Recording site Pedernales Recording Studio — This album was recorded at Pedernales Recording Studio. The marker shows the studio's building location. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Night and Day: 46th album by the country musician Willie Nelson
• Instrumental album released in 1999
• Released 13 July 1999 by Free Falls Entertainment (Spanish Wikipedia)
• Ten tracks, including "Nuages", "All the Things You Are", "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Honeysuckle Rose"
• Title track nominated for a Grammy Award

Background

• Italian Wikipedia classifies the album as a jazz album
• AllMusic describes it as fusing pre-swing jazz with country and pop
• Nelson draws on influences such as Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli

Recording

• Johnny Gimble played fiddle on several of the album's tracks
• Personnel: Willie Nelson on guitar, Paul English on drums, Johnny Gimble on fiddle and mandolin
• Also featured: Jody Payne on acoustic guitar, Mickey Raphael on harmonica, Bee Spears on bass, Bobbie Nelson on piano, Billy English on percussion
• Recorded at Pedernales Recording Studio

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Willie Hugh Nelson on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas.
• Wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band, Bohemian Polka, as a guitarist at age nine.
• Attended Baylor University for two years before dropping out to pursue music.
• Moved to Nashville in 1960 and joined Ray Price's band as a bassist.

Career

• Songs such as "Crazy" (Patsy Cline), "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Pretty Paper" became hits for other artists.
• Debut album ...And Then I Wrote was released in 1962; joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1965.
• Helped lead the outlaw country movement after moving to Austin, Texas in 1972.
• Red Headed Stranger (1975) was a critically acclaimed concept album; the single "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" became his first number one hit.
• Co-founded Farm Aid in 1985 with Neil Young and John Mellencamp.
• Acted in over 30 films, including The Electric Horseman (1979).
• Received a Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance for "Ride Me Back Home" (2019).
• Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Robert Christgau: found the long-running off-and-on octet reaching a casual musicality without apparent effort
• The Hartford Courant: closest comparison is The Buena Vista Social Club, less in style than in the understated joy of the playing
• AllMusic: says the album is not a hard bop blowing date, and favors melodic, straightforward and uncomplicated lyricism
• Star Tribune: calls the album proof that Nelson is one of the most soulful guitarists

Records

• Title track nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The back cover of the CD shows the original track listing, with a sticker covering it to mark the sequence revision
• Some sources, including the official Willie Nelson site, still show the original sequence, which the source calls incorrect
• Johnny Gimble's fiddle work appears on several tracks, and he also plays mandolin
• Hartford Courant's comparison to The Buena Vista Social Club is one of the most quoted points of the album's reception

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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