By 1975, Willie Nelson was in his mid-40s. Born in 1933, he spent two decades busking his way through Nashville, trying to make a name for himself. In that time, he wrote songs that became classics thanks to other country artists like Patsy Cline (Crazy) and Faron Young (Hello Walls). By the early 1970s, country music was entering a new era. That era was to be dubbed the Outlaw Country movement. Fellow contemporaries like Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, along with Willie Nelson, pushed back on the tamed, polished recordings of the Nashville sound. Nelson succeeded with Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages, released on Atlantic Records. However, Atlantic soon dropped him, and he was back at square 1. He was able to score a deal with Columbia Records on the condition that Nelson had complete artistic control.
Red Headed Stranger turned country music on its head. It's been documented that when recording was completed, Columbia Records (CBS) was hesitant to release it because to them, it sounded like incomplete demos. Furthermore, the production of the record is very sparse. The album is one of Willie Nelson's. Best. The classic concept record reads like an epic poem of the old American West. It tells the story of the Red Headed Stranger who rode into Blue Rock, Montana. Our main character finds out that the "yellow-haired lady" from the local tavern tried to steal his bay (horse), which belonged to his late wife. Out of frustration and anger, he shoots her and rides off into the night. What follows is an odyssey woven together by Nelson and Trigger, his sister Bobbie on piano, and the great Mickey Raphael on harmonica. Red Headed Stranger cemented Willie Nelson's outlaw image.
This album is a testament that less is more, and that stories can capture us and move us. It is that good.
