Texas in My Soul (1967)

Not much info on the liner notes of this cd. Which reminds me, I just saw an article in the NYT or the WSJ (I still read the newsprint versions) that album sales are way down, and CD sales are dwindling. Writing about albums seems so quaint and old fashioned. Will anyone even understand the concept of an album in a few years? Sales of albums and CDs peaked in the ‘90s, and yet they have disappeared so fast. Even blogging is becoming a bit passé, and Twitter is supposedly for old folks. Youngsters Tumbl on Tumblr.

Nevertheless..this album was produced by Chet Atkins, but it doesn’t have all the strings and back-up vocals that marred many of Willie’s eleven albums released during the ‘60s. I won’t comment much on the lyrics because these are all covers. The theme of Texas is clearly important for Willie’s music and his persona. He mentions Pedernales in one of these songs, and George Straight clearly ripped off “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” from “Who Put All My Ex’s in Texas.” Straight’s song was the one that got me hooked on country in 1989. This is a fun album that helps you understand where Willie came from musically, and it probably provides a nice contrast to his other albums from the ‘60s. I’ll have to wait to listen to some of those before I say more. I pretty much played this one on repeat all day while working up at school. It got me thinking about how much simpler things were in 1967 (two years before I was born). Overall, this is a fun, catchy, pleasant album that gets a bit serious with “Remember the Alamo.”