One for the Road (1979)

“Sioux City Sue” makes this whole album worth buying. This album doesn’t sound quite like anything else I have listened to of Willie’s in 2010. There’s a classic gospel tune, “I Saw the Light,” but with a funky harmonica that makes it sound almost like a Preservation Hall New Orleans march. It has a Cajun feel. Just add that to Willie’s repertoire of genres. “Don’t Fence Me In” exemplifies the open road theme of Willie’s career. And, true to form (or lack of form), this album can’t be fenced in by genre. He’s got Elvis’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” and then the second half of the album, starting with track 11, moves from the jumping full-band romps to a set of country and pop standards with a spare piano and guitar backing. Willie can’t even be consistent within the confines of his own albums. They feel like ponds with patches of warm and then cold water. You never know what you’ll find as you swim in the midst of them. Full band, solo, country, pop, jazz, gospel, new stuff, old stuff, cover, what kind of album is this anyway? What kind of artist? It isn’t a kind or genre at all. It just is. One year after Stardust, these jazz and pop standards sound almost, but not quite, as good. The second half of One for the Road could be Stardust part II. How the two parts of these album fit together I have no idea, except that Leon Russell joins Willie on both halves. I guess that is enough in Willie’s mind.