Traditional Country (#510) on the Country DDS.
It’s not just that the country music icons from the ’60s and ’70s amassed arguably the greatest catalogs in the genre’s history. They all also happened to be best friends with each other, and not just on the stage, but in real life. They hung out with each other, collaborated with one another commonly, and covered each other’s songs. Forget competition and jealousy. The old greats enjoyed each other’s music more than they enjoyed their own.
With so much great music out there already and so many albums being released every week, you might wonder why it would be worth pressing play on an album from a 90-something-year-old country artist singing songs played and covered countless times previously. Is Willie Nelson really going to rival the original versions of any of these Merle Haggard tunes, let alone best them?
There’s not even an attempt to unearth some deep cuts to help the audience discover something from Merle Haggard they may have not heard previously. The eleven songs of Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle are the topline hits. But leave it to Willie Nelson to conjure up some magic and make you feel warm in a way no other artist can, even with cover songs and well into his advanced age.
One of the reasons this album is an unexpected gem is that it wasn’t recorded in the last year or so. It was cut before 2020 at Willie’s Pedernales Studios in Austin when Willie’s longtime drummer and manager Paul English was still alive, as was his sister Bobbie. Willie’s live bass player Kevin Smith also appears. He replaced the legendary Bee Spears when Bee passed away in 2012. Paul English’s brother Billy English is also on the album. Willie and long time harmonica player Mickey Raphael act as producers.
What this all means is that Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle really is the last original album from Willie Nelson’s legendary Family Band. And unlike many of the Buddy Cannon-produced albums over the last 20 years or so, the Family Band sound that so many people cherish from Willie’s live shows since the ’70s is captured here for posterity, and in its final form.
The songs might be from Merle, but the sound of Workin’ Man is quintessential Willie Nelson. Along with Willie and the woody tones of his guitar Trigger, the most prominent thing you hear is Sister Bobbie’s excellent honky tonk piano, and the swelling tones of Mickey Raphael’s harp, all backed by the brush-on-snare shuffle beat of the English brothers. Put this right up there with the beloved Willie and Family Live double album from 1978 as a pure version of the Family Band sound.
But just as much as this album is about Willie, it’s also about Merle. These are songs that Willie can sing frontwards and backwards, recite in his sleep, and studied over the years to help improve his own craft. You can tell the recordings were done live and organic, no frills or overdubs, with the loose endings left on, and little attempt at interpretation or augmentation from the original songs, except for rendering them Willie Nelson style, including his unique vocal phrasing, and ending “Okie From Muskogee” with the updated lyric, “…and white lightning is still the biggest George Jones song.”
No, it’s unlikely when you get a hankering to hear one of these legendary Merle Haggard tunes, you’ll select Willie’s over the original. But this album is ideal for turning on in the background as your cooking dinner or entertaining guests, or sitting around on a lazy afternoon. It fills the moments with the cherished songs and sounds of two of country music’s most legendary contributors, making the love Willie shared for Merle communicable.
