Willie Nelson is back writing songs again and for that, the world should rejoice. The man who gave us stone cold classics like ‘Always On My Mind’, ‘On The Road Again’ and ‘Crazy’ (yes, the Patsy Cline standard) is back in the songwriting saddle and most of the 14 tracks here are Nelson originals for the first time on an album since 1996’s Spirit. Even at 81 years of age, the former outlaw has a way with a couplet and an easy delivery that’s impossible not to warm to.
Produced by the great Buddy Cannon, with whom Nelson created some of his finest work back in the 1970s, Band Of Brothers is a worthy addition to his (ahem) canon. The producer’s biggest talent is his lightness of touch, eschewing the Big Time Production Sound in favour of letting Nelson’s weary vocals breathe and giving his beautiful words space to shine.
The songs cover the various sides of Nelson’s talent, from the bittersweet balladry of ‘Bring It On’ or the pitch perfect ‘Whenever You Come Around’ to the more throwaway honkytonk of ‘Used To Her’ or ‘The Git Go’, a killer duet with Jamey Johnson on a cover of Billy Joe Shaver’s powerful state-of-the-nation address.
He also covers Shaver’s homage to growing old disgracefully, ‘Hard To Be An Outlaw’, which the duo duetted on for Shaver’s latest album, Long In The Tooth. Pick of the bunch is ‘The Songwriters’, written by Gordie Sampson and Bill Anderson, a powerful paean to the people who pen the tunes that make the world sing.
Nelson’s own compositions sit easily amid such vaunted company, however. ‘Guitar In The Corner’ is a sweetly sentimental tune about an instrument and a lost love, with some truly gorgeous lyrics (“A new song might come to call and free us from this minor key that we’ve both been living in”). ‘Wives And Girlfriends’ showcases his playful side, as he narrates a tongue-in-cheek tale of multiple marriages and infinite infidelities, while ‘I Thought I Left You’ proves that the octogenarian still has a killer put-down in the armoury when the mood takes him. Over a stately country backdrop, he intones, “You’re like the measles, you’re like the whooping cough/ I’ve already had you/ so why in heaven’s name can’t you just get lost?” Welcome back to the top table, Willie.