Old Friends (1982)

Here we have another two-LP set on one CD put out by Koch Records. The first LP is Willie’s duet album with Roger Miller. It contains a mix of solo performances by Roger and Willie and a few duets (one of which includes Ray Price, who was a mentor to both men). According to Rich Kienzle’s excellent liner notes, Willie was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1983, but rather than focus on his own career, he helped revive the careers of his mentors—Roger Miller and Faron Young. This album was produced by Willie, Roger, and Chips Moman at Willie’s Pedernales studio in Spicewood, Texas. It features Willie’s standard family band sans Bobbie plus Johnny Gimble (fiddle) and Jimmy Day (steel). The title track, Miller’s “Old Friends,” is a touching tribute (reminds me a but of Paul Simon’s “Old Friends”) that is even more moving because Ray Price joins Willie and Roger. This track went to #19 on the country charts. Willie and Roger join forces on Roger’s 1966 hit “Husbands and Wives,” a mournful lament about the troubled institution of marriage, with a guitar solo that I assume is Trigger. No harmonica player is listed, but I’m guessing it’s Mickey Raphael. Miller identifies pride as the chief cause of the decline in number of husbands and wives. A quiet, moving song with tender fiddle and piano work. Willie tackle’s Miller’s “Half a Mind” solo. Willie has “half a mind to leave you, but only half the heart to go.” Willie is either of a double mind or of half a mind. Half a man, half a mind, and half hearted. He is paradoxically divided. The Jekyll-Hyde duality of the human condition torments him. You were always on half of my mind might be a truer song. Willie also sings Miller’s “The Best I Can Give Her” solo. He remembers having “once promised the world to a ribbon-haired girl.” But it’s funny how time slipped away, and his promise wasn’t worth much. “Pretty dreams, happy dreams, how they wither.” He’s “ashamed, but it’s the best [he} can give her.” This makes my untenable top ten already. Roger sings one to Willie, “Sorry Willie.” “What’s wrong, Willie, why are you crying…Sorry, Willie, I didn’t know you didn’t know.” “Don’t ask how I know her, I might have to lie.” Here is the ultimate cheatin’ song from one cheater to another. Can we believe any aspect of this apology? A cheater apologizing to a cheater for cheating? Roger supposedly was fooling around with Willie’s wife. Then Willie sings Miller’s “When a House is Not a Home.” You can see where Willie got all his house song ideas. A house is not a home without love. This album is Red Headed Stranger-esque. Same pure, clean, tender songs and a spare acoustic setting. You can hear how torn Willie’s heart is. “That’s how it is when your house is not a home.” But what about when you’re on the road? Is that a home.” Roger sings his fun romping blues called “Aladambama.” Mickey’s harmonica gets involved. Roger scats like the King of the Road, like Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis. Willie and Roger team up for “Invitation to the Blues,” which sounds eerily like some other Willie-penned song (“I’m the Man with the Blues”?). The band for this album and the last two LPs I reviewed may be one of Willie’s best. 1982 is a vintage year for Willie’s voice and his band. Willie’s solo version of “When Two World’s Collide” ranks with Willie’s best ballads. The combination of his voice with Gimble’s fiddle, Raphael’s harmonica, and Johnny Day’s steel make this a 5-star recording. Ditto for Willie’s solo rendition of Miller’s “I’ll Pick Up My Heart (and Go Home),” which reads: “Once again, you’ve got me crying. I’m a fool if I let this go on. You can hurt me without even trying…I can see the first scenes of autumn…suddenly I feel so forgotten…I think I’ll pick up my heart and go home…somewhere where you’ll never find me. Somewhere I can leave all my troubles behind me.” Willie learned to cry from Miller, and the wry tone of “Pick Up My Heart and Go Home” reminds me of the tone of “Funny How Time Slips Away.” It also reminds me of a more recent haunting ballad (on Teatro?) (“Pick Up the Pieces”). This album is another hidden gem that belongs on the shelf with Willie’s best. I will revisit it often with pleasure.