Willie Nelson, "Live from Austin, Tx"

/ ARTIST: Willie Nelson / TITLE: "Live from Austin, Tx" / GENRÉ: Musical film / FORMAT: DVD /


Much has happened in the world since I last wrote on country music on this blog. For starters, Blake Shelton made his infamous "old farts and jackasses" statement and, very sadly, a legend passed away, none other than George Jones.

The two things can be seen as two sides of the same coin. The old timers are getting old and soon there will be no "old farts" remaining in country music and as the young generation takes other, there will be what Merle Haggard called "too much boogie-woogie" and not much traditional country. Even Dwight Yoakam is getting old.

Anyway, I often say that other people got Joy Division and Morrissey, I've got Buck Owens, but performers like Willie Nelson comes pretty close too.

This DVD/CD is a live recording of Nelson's music, spanning most of his career as it looked when he recorded this in 1990. You got all the faves on it, tunes like On the road again and Always on my mind, as well as some tunes from the start of his career like Crazy.

I've got straight edge and am no big fan of drugs, that goes without saying. Still, I think Willie Nelson, does a good job at singing, with his distinctive voice, whether it's christian music like the tunes on his Troublemaker album or the druggier stuff like his recent duet with rap legend Snoop Dogg, he always delivers.

Anyway, you don't get any open drug propaganda on this vid, but you do get music that breathes of the 70's drug-fuelled music and a couple of "far out" treatments of instruments.

But maybe this is Nelson's grandeur? That he can consume that much ganja and still remain active as a great artist. Artists who consume ganja quite often degenerate and their music becomes intolerable. Not so with Willie Nelson.

Fact is that Willie, despite being a junkie, sounds as good live as on record, something many artists of today can't manage. Over all, the band and Nelson makes a good impression of a bunch of lads and lasses who've enjoyed playing this kind of music and done it for a long time.

On this piece of recording, you also get a duet with Shelby Lynne, whom I hadn't heard before, but who's got a great voice.

I really liked this vid and would recommend it to anyone who likes country music and to fans of Willie Nelson, it's a must-have.

A vid as good as this gets a good review, 81,3% in rate of satisfaction!

Willie Nelson, "Heroes"

/ARTIST: Willie Nelson / TITLE: Heroes / GENRE: Country music / LABEL: Legacy / FORMAT: CD /

This is Willie Nelsons latest CD and the fact that it's full of interesting collaborations, including the fact that the three big names of old school country, that is Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard, are present on this disc is reason enough to buy it.

However, it's hardly groundbreaking. Willie is like Cock Sparrer, you get what you get on album after album. There are plenty of good tunes on this one, but no On the road again and no You were always on my mind. There are, however, songs with a message and songs about broken hearts, something Willie does good, cos, remember that he was a short haired singer of romantic songs once, before he turned out to be a long haired rebel.

If this record is like most other stuff he's turned out over the last few years, I would still recommend everyone to buy it and support one of the last greats of country music. I compared him to Cock Sparrer before and another trait he shares with oi! is the fact that he combines staunch patriotism with criticism of the system. He shows you can love your country and it's traditions and still be mad as hell about what the leaders of men get up to. The next last tune on the disc, Come back Jesus, shows that clearly.

I really liked Willie's reggae album and his collaboration with Toots Hibbert of the Maytals fame. When I picked this record up, I noticed on the back that he was going to collaborate with rapper Snoop Dogg. For a minute, I feared there would be some dreadful nu country, where Willie would rap. Fortunately, that didn't happen. If he went reggae on his other album, this is Snoop going country. Gangsta rap meets outlaw country. The tune itself is one of the worst tunes on the album and one can clearly hear why Snoop raps and doesn't sing normally.

Well, what could Willie and Snoop have in common? Duh!

Unfortunately, there are a few drug-glorifying tunes on this album that I, as a straight edge guy and as someone with mates that have died from overdoses, simply can't endorse. I see no reason to glorify that shit and those who do so through music should be held accountable for all the drug-related deaths there is.

Fortunately, Willie doesn't only sing about drugs. Best songs on this album are, as usual, his songs about broken hearts, whereof The sound of your memory and Just breathe stand out as the finest.

I think this is an okayish album that delivers the goods, but hardly anything groundbreaking. It gets 58,3% in rate of satisfaction!