What a Wonderful World (1988)

Another Chips Moman produced album of pop standards from the late eighties. I’m afraid this may be my 26th favorite album of the 26 I have reviewed thus far. Willie’s voice is strong and clear, and Mickey Raphael does his best on harmonica to make something of these tunes, but none of these really worked for me. “Some Enchanted Evening” intrigued me with its ruminations about the magic of time and memory and love. Willie’s “What a Wonderful World” just can’t stand up to Satchmo’s, but whose can? The back-up vocals on some of these tracks harken back to the Nashville Sound days of Chet Atkins. “Twilight Time” touches on the enchanting, seductive quality of time and memory. “Deepening shadows gather splendor.” Paradoxically, things get brighter as they get darker. “I fall in love again as I did then.” He looks forward to twilight, when it gets dark, so he can fall in love again in (or is it with?) his memories. Making love to his memories. How many outlaws could get away with mooning around like this and then singing “You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive and e-lim-inate the negative”? Only Willie could howl at the moon one night, like Hank Williams, and than make moon eyes at the “Ole Buttermilk Sky” the next.