Just One Love (1995)

Willie has many (but not all) of his road band members with him on this album. Bobbie, Jody, Grady. Noticeably absent is Mickey Raphael. I’m growing fond of Buddy Emmons on steel. Grady Martin produces this duet album with Kimmie Rhodes. The recording was done at Pedernales.

“Each Night at Nine,” an old Floyd Tillman song, fits into Willie’s repertoire perfectly. Setting a very specific time to remember an earlier time is a very Willie thing to do. Having a date with time. Making love with time.

Why does Willie, like Proust, always remember things “Better Left Forgotten”? “Why, oh, why won’t [his] mind let go of a love that used to be? Though [he tries]… Your memory will never set [him] free.” “Sometimes, right out of the blue, [he hears] a voice and [he turns] and [looks] for you.” Why is he so sensitive to the past, to memories, and, in so many ways, insensitive to the present? It reminds me of Gatsby.

“Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette” is a different kind of song for Willie. It’s more of a Charlie Daniels kind of humorous story song. Willie’s vocals are strong and full and front and center on this album.

“I Just Drove By” to see if things had changed. That’s Willie. Get in the moving car and drive by to check on the passage of time. It’s a physics problem. If you are moving yourself, how can you possibly measure the passage of time, which is itself always moving? Something has to stand still in order for you to measure it. Something must be fixed. Maybe Willie’s music is a search for something fixed. An Augustinian “our hearts are restless till they find rest in thee.” Or a lament that nothing is or can be fixed. “Love is just a fragile thing.” “to see if love is still the way it was back then.” “Standing still is not time’s way.” And yet we want it to stand still. Or we want to outrun it.

It’s nice to hear Willie do country standards after hearing him do so many pop standard albums. Despite his success with Stardust, these seem a better fit. And the backing is solid and serviceable if not remarkable. It doesn’t get in the way. It does no harm.

Willie sings with Opry star “Grandpa” Jones on the last track. Not really my kind of song, but it is nice to hear Willie’s voice juxtaposed with Grandpa Jones’s, if for no other reason than it gives me a nice gauge of where Willie fits historically and stylistically in relation to the Opry stars of the past.