Willie Nelson

Willie's first record for Blue Note was his sublime jazz-blues collaboration with Wynton Marsalis, Two Men With the Blues. On this follow-up, Nelson goes back to the kind of intimate standards that he cut on 1978's Stardust. Nelson's swing-etched Texas approach makes masterpieces like "The Nearness of You'" and "Ain't Misbehavin" sound as if they were tailored just for him. Diana Krall sings on "If I Had You," and Norah Jones (a lifelong student of Nelson's laid-back Lone Star style) guests on a truly tasty reading of "Baby It's Cold Outside."

Willie Nelson may be America's greatest balladeer, capable of making any song sound like a
standard. For all his genius, Nelson can be kind of lazy, and this disc — a sequel of sorts to
his beloved 1978 standards collection, Stardust — he only occasionally sounds like he's
trying. Nelson wrings pathos out of "Come Rain or Come Shine" and plays the dirty old man
to perfection in "Baby, It's Cold Outside," drawling come-ons to Norah Jones. But... More >