Jeff McCord on the month’s new releases
Willie Nelson
Rhino
The liner notes pin it down to a single moment: a 1972 George McGovern rally in Austin’s Zilker Park, when new-to-town country singer WILLIE NELSON found himself on the bill with a lot of hippie rock bands. Unintimidated, Nelson forged ahead with the show, and a movement was born. This is likely an oversimplification, but there’s no doubt that the recordings that make up the three-disc THE COMPLETE ATLANTIC SESSIONS (Rhino)—with multiple bonus tracks and a full CD of live material recorded in Austin in 1974—help mark the genesis of the “outlaw country” scene. Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler freed Nelson from the Nashville cookie-cutter assembly line, and his albums Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages still rank among his best work. Shotgun introduced “Stay All Night” and Johnny Bush’s “Whiskey River” to his repertoire (did Willie open his shows with a moment of silence before this?), while Phases proved to be one of country’s most successful concept records, detailing the dissolution of a love affair from both the female and male perspectives. Nelson, free to explore his muse, found a whole new audience in the bargain, and neither he nor his adopted hometown would ever be the same.
Rhino
ROCKIN’ BONES: 1950S PUNK & ROCKABILLY (Rhino), a reverb-drenched four-CD set of blistering guitar abandon, establishes this Eisenhower-era crew of JDs as the original punk rockers. Assembled with the same fanaticism as Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets, 101 (!) tracks roll by, many rescued from undeserved obscurity. You’ve heard Texans Buddy Holly, Corky Jones (Buck Owens), “Thumper” Jones (yep, George), and Ronnie Dawson, whose manic voice graces the title track; there are many more here you’ll want to discover. Ignore the cheesy cover art and dive in.
Waylon Jennings
RCA/Legacy
Like his compatriot “outlaw” Willie Nelson, WAYLON JENNINGS had already done a lot of solid work in Music City before reaching his breaking point, one set off by an accumulation of road dates, divorces, unpaid bills, and pep pills. So NASHVILLE REBEL (RCA/Legacy), a beautifully annotated four-CD retrospective, is a bit of a misnomer: The Littlefield-born singer hadn’t come to town to stir things up. In truth, when Jennings finally took control and started making records on his terms in 1972, his music really didn’t change all that much; unlike Nelson, who was much more of a dabbler, Jennings—long hair or no—was always about well-produced country songs. Up until his death, in 2002, the troubled singer stayed true to his ornery self, with an iconic body of work almost as notable for its consistency as its artistry.
Red Garland
Prestige
Detractors of Dallas’s RED GARLAND disdained him as a “cocktail pianist” and claimed he made it into Miles Davis’s first classic quintet (from 1955 to 1957) only because of a stylistic similarity to Davis obsession Ahmad Jamal. Yet he proved the perfect accompanist for not just the legendary trumpeter but also, subsequently, Davis’s saxophonist John Coltrane. On a pair of superb collections, Davis’s four-CD THE LEGENDARY PRESTIGE QUINTET SESSIONS and COLTRANE’s SIX-CD FEARLESS LEADER (both Prestige), it’s easy to hear what attracted the two to Garland: his versatility. Driving but never stepping on the rhythm section, he slips easily into blues; on ballads, he makes the keys ring like bells, then flies off at Teddy Wilson light speed. Prestige was infamous for putting musicians in studios for marathon sessions with no retakes and then releasing everything. This led to some raw moments—Coltrane in particular seems close to drowning on a couple of early quintet solos—yet Garland is poised and cool throughout. Unexciting? To some, maybe. But Garland didn’t merely back these geniuses, he made them better.
