Maps of Music

The Willie Way (1972)

Where the lyrics of The Willie Way take you, and where it was really made.

Nelson's last album of new material for RCA came in a sleeve that one author called the most unimaginative ever to come out of Nashville.

Key places

Recorded at RCA Victor Studios (1972)

Recording site Nashville — Credits list RCA Victor Studios in Nashville as the recording location. The point sits at Nashville city center, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Willie Way: 15th studio album by country singer Willie Nelson
• Released 1972 on RCA Records
• Last album of new material released by RCA before Nelson left for Atlantic Records and moved to Austin, Texas

Background

• Capped off Nelson's underwhelming seven-year tenure at RCA Records
• Nelson never matched his success as a recording artist with his success as a songwriter
• He grew frustrated at not being allowed to use his own band on recording sessions
• Producer Chet Atkins followed the Nashville Sound with Nelson, adding violins and syrupy background vocalists
• The aim was to break Nelson as a national star; the efforts proved fruitless
• By the early seventies the apathy seemed to cut both ways
• The album includes his first cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night", which Nelson would recut for Sings Kristofferson in 1979

Recording

• Recording engineers: Al Pachucki and Les Ladd
• Recording technicians: Roy Shockley and Mike Shockley
• Recorded at RCA Victor Studios, Nashville
• Credited performer: Willie Nelson on guitar and vocals

Cover

• Cover photography by Jimmy Moore
• Author Michael Streissguth wrote that the album arrived in stores in the most unimaginative album sleeve ever to come out of Nashville

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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

• Rolling Stone's Chet Flippo wrote that Nelson sang with a freshness drawn from his own blues-tinged country style
• The review placed Nelson's vocal approach on this record at the center of its praise

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Jim Worbois wrote that "You Left Me a Long, Long Time Ago" is worth the price of the record alone
• Worbois also wrote that Nelson's version of "Undo the Right" is easily as good as Johnny Bush's 1968 hit

Records

• Peaked at number 34 on the US country album chart
• Charted on the US country albums list as the RCA period closed

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

Trivia

• Like most of Nelson's RCA albums, it was never issued on any tape format.
• Wounded Bird Records released it on compact disc in September 2011, as a twofer with 1966's Country Music Concert.
• In 2017, Friday Music remastered and reissued it, making it available on vinyl for the first time in 45 years.
• "Undo the Right" is credited to Nelson and Hank Cochran.
• "Mountain Dew" is credited to Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Scotty Wiseman.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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