Song of the Day #5,435: ‘Red Headed Stranger’ – Willie Nelson

Continuing my look at the albums of 1975…

Red Headed Stranger was Willie Nelson’s 18th studio album, his first to reach #1 on the Country chart, and his first to reach platinum status (it eventually went 2X platinum). It’s also the first of Nelson’s 99 (!) studio albums I’ve listened to from start to finish.

The barebones acoustic release is a concept album about a man who kills his wife and her lover then goes on the run. He kills again (as depicted in today’s SOTD) before falling in love and settling down, a redeemed man.

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Song of the Day #5,021: ‘Lost Highway’ – Willie Nelson with Kurt Nilsen

Today’s random selection comes from an EP that accompanied Lyle Lovett’s 2009 album Natural Forces. That album was half made up of Lovett’s covers of other Texas songwriters, and the EP — titled T For Texas, T From Tennessee — offered a sample of other tracks on the Lost Highway label.

Among the songs was today’s SOTD, actually titled ‘Lost Highway,’ a duet by Willie Nelson and Kurt Nilsen.

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Song of the Day #4,821: ‘(How Will I Know) I’m Falling in Love Again’ – Willie Nelson

I was impressed by the 60 studio albums released by James Brown over the course of his career. Well, Willie Nelson makes Brown look like a slacker.

Nelson has released a whopping 95 studio albums, including 75 solo records and 20 in collaboration with others. That’s an average of one and a half albums per year for nearly 60 years! And I’m not including live albums or soundtracks.

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