Naked Willie (2009)--Take 2

This time through I notice how the “Do Right Man” meets “Johnny One Time.” Paradoxically, Willie is “both sides now.” He’s Johnny “always” and Johnny “one time.” As W. H. Auden wrote in 1959:

“I will love you forever,” swears the poet. I find this easy to swear. “I will love you at 4:15pm next Tuesday”: Is that still as easy?

My 10-yeard old daughter, Stella, made fun of my 7-year-old daughter, Vivian, today by saying: “Vivian likes Willie Nelson.” Vivian denied it, but I had heard her earlier telling Stella that she liked the music (not the vocals) of these naked recordings. So six months of Willie Nelson has worn them down into submission. They are girding their ears for 48 hours of Willie in the car ride to Maine and back. We may need to drive down and back twice, though, since I have amassed almost 4 days’ worth of Willie’s music.

Memory and mind are the key themes to the songs on this album. Tears and time. These patterns are emerging and coming into clearer focus as I listen more deeply to each album.