Search - Willie Nelson :: To Lefty From Willie

Fine, often overlooked, tribute to Lefty Frizzell

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 09/05/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Nelson's 1975 tribute to Lefty Frizzell, recorded the same year as his breakthrough LP, "Red Headed Stranger," wasn't actually released until two years later. It made a reasonable commercial splash on the album charts, spun off a hit single ("I Love You a Thousand Ways"), and then largely disappeared from discussions about Nelson's ouvre. Given the fruitfulness with which Nelson recorded in the '70s ("Shotgun Willie" "Phases and Stages" "Red Headed Stranger" "Stardust" and more), it's not hard to see why this album was overshadowed.Removed from the context of Nelson's string of ground-breaking '70s releases, this affectionate tribute reveals significant charms. Like the best of such albums, it melds elements of each artist, combining Frizzell's iconic songs (along with a few more obscure items) with Nelson's idiosyncratic style. In particular, Nelson's singing style, with its unusual phrasings and stretched notes, gives these songs an edgy modernity -- much as Frizzell's originals did in their own time.Highlights include the hymn-like reading of "Mom and Dad's Waltz," brilliantly mixing slip-key piano, harmonica and Nelson's own gut-stringed guitar. The backing provides an emotional pulpit from which Nelson proclaims the song's sentiments. Similarly, the desperation and sadness of "Look What Thoughts Will Do" could easily have been from Nelson's own pen. Even the sunnier lyrics, such as those to "I Love You a Thousand Ways," are more wishful than positive, and, conversely, the sadness of "She's Gone, Gone, Gone" sounds more wistful than genuinely apologetic.Nelson's fine ears also picked up a few tunes not often associated with Frizzell's own performances, including the superbly depressed "I Never Go Around Mirrors," and the resigned "That's the Way Love Goes." Legacy's remastered reissue augments the original ten cuts with a previously unreleased take of Frizzell's very first single, "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time," and John Morthland's newly penned liner notes flesh out the story of an album that is often unjustly overlooked in Nelson's catalog."