The ageless Willie Nelson combines contemporary tunes with exemplary backing and superb production values to produce a modern country classic.
Willie Nelson has reached the venerable age of 91, and continues to record and tour as though he were half that age. Perhaps no one has been on the music scene as continuously and with as much musical versatility as he has shown, both as performer and as songwriter. The current release is number 152 in his album catalogue of country, bluegrass, folk, Americana and jazz recordings. There is simply no one like him.
His voice is remarkably expressive after all this time, and what it lacks in range Willie more than makes up for it in his choice of material: the songs simply suit him. Combined with the collaboration of long-time producer Buddy Cannon, The Border exudes a quality singularly Nelsonian in its believability.
The album features four Nelson/Cannon co-compositions and two from the pen of Rodney Crowell. The title song is a co-write from Crowell and Allan Shamblin and is an evocative and timely song about an immigration guard on the U.S. – Mexico border. The electric guitar work from Bobby Terry and James Mitchell is a treasure.
“Many A Long and Lonesome Highway” was composed by Crowell and Will Jennings, illuminating the mystery of the road: its fascinations, its call and the urge to respond regardless of the cost to one’s personal life.
Much of this album is about music: its joys, its tribulations, and the cost to the artist for its creation. “Once Upon A Yesterday”,”How Much Does It Cost To Be Free”, “Made In Texas”, “I Wrote This Song For You” and “Hank’s Guitar” are each a variation on the theme that make up Willie’s life. That life he sums up in a single lyric line “I’m a songwriter and always will be.”
“Why am I always trying to make it all rhyme?” he sings in a voice tinged with experience and wonder with only the slightest hint of regret. His life has been a gift to music. Indeed, what would we do without the songs of Willie Nelson?
