Willie sings Hallelujah
Willie sings Hallelujah
Willie Nelsons version of Hallelujah is on his next album called "Songbird", due to be released on October 30. The producer of this album is Ryan Adams.
http://www.earvolution.com/2006/09/will ... review.asp
Lost Highway Records has some sample clips of the collaboration between Willie Nelson and Ryan Adams. They are running samples of three tunes: Songbird, Blue Hotel and Rainy Day Blues. However, it appears you will have to offer up an email address and get a password to hear more than one clip.
Songbird is also the name of the cd, which will hit stores on Halloween. If you recognize the title track, it's because it was written by Christine McVie and appeared on Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album. The record also has Willie, backed by Ryan and his Cardinals, covering Songbird Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Gram Parsons' "$1000 Wedding", and Jerry Garcia's & Robert Hunter's "Stella Blue." (what no Summer of 69?) But, the record is not all covers. Nelson wrote the acoustic "Back to Earth" and Adams wrote "Blue Hotel" specifically for Willie.
Lost Highway Records has some sample clips of the collaboration between Willie Nelson and Ryan Adams. They are running samples of three tunes: Songbird, Blue Hotel and Rainy Day Blues. However, it appears you will have to offer up an email address and get a password to hear more than one clip.
Songbird is also the name of the cd, which will hit stores on Halloween. If you recognize the title track, it's because it was written by Christine McVie and appeared on Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album. The record also has Willie, backed by Ryan and his Cardinals, covering Songbird Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Gram Parsons' "$1000 Wedding", and Jerry Garcia's & Robert Hunter's "Stella Blue." (what no Summer of 69?) But, the record is not all covers. Nelson wrote the acoustic "Back to Earth" and Adams wrote "Blue Hotel" specifically for Willie.
You can hear the complete Hallelujah track now at Lost Highway:
http://main.losthighwayrecords.com/prod ... t&pid=1709
http://main.losthighwayrecords.com/prod ... t&pid=1709
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/1 ... lie_n.html
Friday, October 27, 2006
Review: Willie Nelson's "Songbird"
by Shay Quillen
On "Songbird,'' alt-country hipster Ryan Adams supplies the songs
and the band, and Willie Nelson supplies that unmistakable voice.
Like most Adams projects, this one, which drops next week, has keepers and clunkers. Of the former, a lovely version of the Grateful Dead's "Stella Blue'' is the standout, a truly inspired pairing of voice and song.
On the other hand, it's time for a moratorium on covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah,'' and the choir here doesn't help. Stick with the Jeff Buckley version.
The nadir is Adams' rushed arrangement of Gram Parsons' tearjerking
"$1000 Wedding,'' rendered unlistenable by jolting electric guitar accents that step all over Nelson's phrasing.
Nelson and Adams each contribute one new song to the project; Willie's "Back to Earth'' is the better of the two. Nelson also exhumes three of his oldies, all fine, the most worthwhile being a lightly rocking version of the '90s tune "We Don't Run,'' with a tasty harmonica counterpoint from
longtime Nelson sideman Mickey Raphael.
Nelson's voice sounds as good as ever, and when Adams picks good
songs and stays out of the master's way, the results are
satisfying.
-- Shay Quillen
Friday, October 27, 2006
Review: Willie Nelson's "Songbird"
by Shay Quillen
On "Songbird,'' alt-country hipster Ryan Adams supplies the songs
and the band, and Willie Nelson supplies that unmistakable voice.
Like most Adams projects, this one, which drops next week, has keepers and clunkers. Of the former, a lovely version of the Grateful Dead's "Stella Blue'' is the standout, a truly inspired pairing of voice and song.
On the other hand, it's time for a moratorium on covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah,'' and the choir here doesn't help. Stick with the Jeff Buckley version.
The nadir is Adams' rushed arrangement of Gram Parsons' tearjerking
"$1000 Wedding,'' rendered unlistenable by jolting electric guitar accents that step all over Nelson's phrasing.
Nelson and Adams each contribute one new song to the project; Willie's "Back to Earth'' is the better of the two. Nelson also exhumes three of his oldies, all fine, the most worthwhile being a lightly rocking version of the '90s tune "We Don't Run,'' with a tasty harmonica counterpoint from
longtime Nelson sideman Mickey Raphael.
Nelson's voice sounds as good as ever, and when Adams picks good
songs and stays out of the master's way, the results are
satisfying.
-- Shay Quillen
Leonard Cohen Newswire / bookoflonging.com (retired) / leonardcohencroatia.com (retired)
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... elson.html
Willie, Ryan Adams a dynamic duo
Oct. 29, 2006 12:00 AM
'Songbird'
****
Willie Nelson with Ryan Adams
(Lost Highway)
The legendary Willie Nelson and restless, young songwriter-producer Ryan Adams follow in the footsteps of Loretta Lynn and the White Stripes' Jack White by joining the worlds of country and modern rock.
Nelson and Adams share a record label, and Adams has opened concerts for the Texas musical treasure a few times. But Nelson acknowledges that it was an experiment to record in foreign territory (New York City) with Adams and his band, the Cardinals, who have dabbled in raging rock, honky tonk, punk and folk.
The result is one of Nelson's edgiest and moodiest efforts, with the singer sounding loose and at-home doing mostly covers of others' work. Adams' gritty electric guitar is a well-suited counterpoint to Nelson's fabled acoustic picking, and the Cardinals' Jon Graboff is a devoteeof Nelson's former pedal-steel man, the late Jimmy Day, so the band is able to follow Nelson wherever he wanders.
When Nelson leans toward blues (in his self-penned Rainy Day Blues) or rock (in Gram Parsons' $1,000 Wedding), the Cardinals are ready to switch gears. Adams, who produced the CD, throws in just enough feedback on a beautiful arrangement of the Grateful Dead's Stella Blue and can't resist the faintest touch of noise at the end of Harlan Howard's old-school Yours Love.
Nelson treats Adams' Blue Hotel, written for this album, as a slow, soulful rocker. He pushes his upper register while handling such poetic Adams lines as, "She's inside me like a secret and I've got no one to tell."
The title track, from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, comes off as a breezy rocker with Adams' ringing guitar, while Leonard Cohen's challenging Hallelujah sounds ethereal, complete with a choir.
The pair push things with a dark version of the album-closing Amazing Grace. Adams' arrangement uses minor chords and haunting organ to turn the religious classic into a dirge.
- Larry Rodgers
Willie, Ryan Adams a dynamic duo
Oct. 29, 2006 12:00 AM
'Songbird'
****
Willie Nelson with Ryan Adams
(Lost Highway)
The legendary Willie Nelson and restless, young songwriter-producer Ryan Adams follow in the footsteps of Loretta Lynn and the White Stripes' Jack White by joining the worlds of country and modern rock.
Nelson and Adams share a record label, and Adams has opened concerts for the Texas musical treasure a few times. But Nelson acknowledges that it was an experiment to record in foreign territory (New York City) with Adams and his band, the Cardinals, who have dabbled in raging rock, honky tonk, punk and folk.
The result is one of Nelson's edgiest and moodiest efforts, with the singer sounding loose and at-home doing mostly covers of others' work. Adams' gritty electric guitar is a well-suited counterpoint to Nelson's fabled acoustic picking, and the Cardinals' Jon Graboff is a devoteeof Nelson's former pedal-steel man, the late Jimmy Day, so the band is able to follow Nelson wherever he wanders.
When Nelson leans toward blues (in his self-penned Rainy Day Blues) or rock (in Gram Parsons' $1,000 Wedding), the Cardinals are ready to switch gears. Adams, who produced the CD, throws in just enough feedback on a beautiful arrangement of the Grateful Dead's Stella Blue and can't resist the faintest touch of noise at the end of Harlan Howard's old-school Yours Love.
Nelson treats Adams' Blue Hotel, written for this album, as a slow, soulful rocker. He pushes his upper register while handling such poetic Adams lines as, "She's inside me like a secret and I've got no one to tell."
The title track, from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, comes off as a breezy rocker with Adams' ringing guitar, while Leonard Cohen's challenging Hallelujah sounds ethereal, complete with a choir.
The pair push things with a dark version of the album-closing Amazing Grace. Adams' arrangement uses minor chords and haunting organ to turn the religious classic into a dirge.
- Larry Rodgers
I think its a terrific version of Hallelujah. As the first reviwer noted there's probably already been too many versions so I was not too keen about one more Hallelujah (plus the fact that occasionally Willie Nelson goes into his casual singing mode where he really does throw-away versions) but not this time. He really took a lot of care with the song.
He does so many collaborations - everybody from BB King, Ray Charles to Norah Jones, Aerosmith and now Ryan Adams. What I'd really like him to do is a whole album with Norah Jones and throw in a couple of LC numbers in there. Their voices really blend well together.
Here he sings Wurlitzer Prize with her (the lucky bastard!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NAq76Swj40
He does so many collaborations - everybody from BB King, Ray Charles to Norah Jones, Aerosmith and now Ryan Adams. What I'd really like him to do is a whole album with Norah Jones and throw in a couple of LC numbers in there. Their voices really blend well together.
Here he sings Wurlitzer Prize with her (the lucky bastard!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NAq76Swj40
I just heard it, and I agree with the AMG comment:
Everybody has sung 'Hallelujah', and most that I've heard
sound to me like people trying to top each other in
"holier than thou", or "see how much deeper I feel it than anyone else has"
self-advertising.
But if you love Willie Nelson, then you know it's simply because
he could have written these lines himself:
"I did my best, and it wasn't much.
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch.
I've told the truth. I didn't come to fool ya."
...Turning Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," into a country waltz is no mean feat,
but Nelson and Adams strip away all the overblown intensity the song has been
imbued with in the past by others and states it matter of factly. There are some
wonderfully understated sound effects and again a choir picking up the refrains
and a pedal steel guitar leading the changes as the band helps
the singer through the tune.
...
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... dgbnolj~T1
Everybody has sung 'Hallelujah', and most that I've heard
sound to me like people trying to top each other in
"holier than thou", or "see how much deeper I feel it than anyone else has"
self-advertising.
But if you love Willie Nelson, then you know it's simply because
he could have written these lines himself:
"I did my best, and it wasn't much.
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch.
I've told the truth. I didn't come to fool ya."
You probably heard Willie got busted for pot a few weeks back....here he explains it all to Don Imus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HduZkDtHZLk
He's probably got the longest running musical partnership going in the world with his sister Bobbie (the pianist in his band).....they are 73 and 75 respectively and they started making music together when they were 7 and 9 (guitar and piano).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HduZkDtHZLk
He's probably got the longest running musical partnership going in the world with his sister Bobbie (the pianist in his band).....they are 73 and 75 respectively and they started making music together when they were 7 and 9 (guitar and piano).
Not sure if you're saying you didnt hear about him getting busted for possession or whether you didnt hear the clip I posted.
Anyway he doesnt need to explain anything coz he is a member of the National association for legalization of Marijuana. That explains it all!
I dont necessarily agree with his views on it but he's a long-haired hippie so who am I to argue?
Anyway he doesnt need to explain anything coz he is a member of the National association for legalization of Marijuana. That explains it all!
I dont necessarily agree with his views on it but he's a long-haired hippie so who am I to argue?
Ah..actually I was gonna give a synopsis earlier but I had to leave and so cut short my post. Anyway, he just jokes around that the tour bus in which they were busted consisted of fifty to eighty year olds so it was like an old folks home. Moreover the oldest band member (83) was asleep and the cops never woke him up to give a citation so they later told the him that they told the cops he was dead. And they told the band member not to be upset coz they were gonna bury him next to Ann Richards (former Texas governor who died recently) so he was quite happy about that. Willie Nelson's ..ah recreational activities are well known - there's even a country song by Toby Keith called "I'll never smoke weed with Willie again".
Glad you came back to add all that on 
.