Season 338: Willie

apologies friends for the brief interruption to programming.
please go to the season 336 thread -
the link to the rekkid we compiled from the season is ready to listen to at your leisure!
and it's right here too.
thanks, and love.
https://soundcloud.com/user-165382615/albums


Special, special thanks again, Jon and Joo, for keeping the candle of Season 336 lighting our way through this fantastic project - a testament to your (plural) warm, warm goodness and generosity.
 
For many years I thought this was written by Willie, and he has sung it. Of course now I know better, it was written by fellow Highwayman, Kris Kristofferson. This might be a bit sentimental for some tastes but I love this song and always have done. This was recorded on Garage Band with baritone uke, mandolin and vocals. I added the tex mex feel bass to add a bit of depth.....the pictures were free to use off the net. I chose them not to be too literal, but because I think that slight melancholy of autumn suits the mood of the song. I will return later in the week with at least one, maybe two that Willie definitely wrote himself :D
 
Here's a Willie 2'fer to start things off for me this week. Whenever I think of a Willie Nelson song to play, "One day at a time" is always the first one that comes to my mind without fail, so it's fitting I did it first here. I've played "Yesterday's wine" before too, but only once, but I find it so darned fun to play and sing.

 
Is there any popular song written in the 20th Century Willie hasn’t recorded? We may find out. (Though I guess you can’t prove a negative.) Anyway, I’ve always loved this song, no matter who did it.

 
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Season 338. Submission 1. "If I Could Only Fly" Written by Blaze Foley (1979).

Willie and Merle sang a great duet on this song for their Seashores of Old Mexico album.


 
Good morning from Long Island which will be under a heat alert through tomorrow, with the heat index putting us well, well into the upper 90Fs. (I know some of us are in the midst of winter, but the rest of it? It's been a long, HOT summer. Today special thoughts are with those impacted by the devastating fires in California and those in southern Europe facing high, high temps.)

I'm really looking forward to the time when our heat index goes back down into the upper 90s.
 
I haven't been through all the videos so far yet, but I would be surprised if this one hadn't been done already. I've been trying to do this song in a way that didn't sound terrible for years.

About this song, Willie once said, "Maybe I wrote it, but that song was always Patsy's."



The little thing I played for the line "crazy for trying, crazy for crying" is something I learned about playing partial chords so they would sound like other chords by studying videos on playing the C6 tuned lap steel guitar.
 
In 2016, Willie released an album with Gershwin-songs titled Summertime. Most of the songs would take me years to learn them, but the titletrack is quite playable. In fact, I already had published a recording of it for the season Hot, hot, hot. So I sat down and recorded it anew, in order not to break the rules. This time, I used my low g concert ukulele for a fingerpicked accompaniment and my electric tenor guitar for the melody.
 
Another absolute classic, stripped down to its bare minimum foundations. Also, ignore the fact that I look high (appropriate though that is to performing Willie)--I had a kidney stone surgery two days ago (the second one in a month!) and am consequently sleep-deprived and on Oxycodone.
 
Dry Lightning

A Bruce Springsteen song (from his 1985 album "The Ghost of Tom Joad"), covered by Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris on Willie's 2013 album, "To All The Girls..."

 
Thank you everyone for a fine start to our Season. I love the fact that we've got originals, American Songbook Standards, iconic Willie hit songs and songs by other songwriters brought so beautifully already. What a day! :)


I'm calling it a night now, but as I go, I'd like to give a shoutout. I've a friend on the Tube named Andy who specializes in covering Willie songs. He's got a great line of Willie t-shirts, wears a great cowboy hat and often plays both rhythm and lead guitar in his Willie covers. Here's a link to Andy's channel for anyone who might want to hear some of these or shop the song titles:

http://https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCquET14Blk7mhRSON4JdO2Q

Have a great night! Linda :)
 
Kind of silly of me to take such a prolific songwriter and start with a song he didn’t write, but his version of this song is certainly the most famous one...and I really like it.
 
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