Here's Willie Nelson

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Here's Willie Nelson
Studio album by
Willie Nelson
Released1963
GenreCountry
LabelLiberty
ProducerTommy Allsup
Willie Nelson chronology
...And Then I Wrote
(1962) 		Here's Willie Nelson
(1963) 		Country Willie: His Own Songs
(1965)

Here's Willie Nelson is the second studio album by country singer Willie Nelson.

Background

After working as a disc jockey in

Ray Price during this period, wanted to be a recording artist in his own right, and recorded his debut album, ...And Then I Wrote for Liberty in 1962. He scored a Top 10 hit with “Touch Me,” but the LP was not a huge seller. Against his better judgement, Nelson would allow his songs to be heavily augmented when he returned to the studio, later admitting, “I didn’t argue. In those days, big productions like Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’ were huge hits. So if it worked for Johnny, maybe it’d work for me. I went along with the program.”[1]

Recording and Composition

After failing to deliver a hit for Liberty,

Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, “Roly Poly” and “Right or Wrong
.” Wills, one of Nelson’s idols, would also write the liner notes for the LP.

Nelson worked out several songs on his second album while touring with his wife

Shirley Collie and steel guitarist Jimmy Day while playing shows as the trio The Offenders. [3]
Nelson later expressed dissatisfaction with the recorded version of “Home Motel,” a song he described as “another study in despair,” and it was typical of the frustration that he would feel regarding the tepid sound of his albums in the decade ahead:

It was a thrill to play the song live. Jimmy Day had his steel guitar weeping just enough, and Shirley added just a touch of harmony, and I got to sing my blues the way the blues should be sung: no frills. Yet when I brought the song into the Liberty studios, the producers felt compelled to put on the frills. “Aren’t you worried you’re burying the soul of the song?” I asked. “More worried about the song not selling,” was the usual answer.[4]

In his 2015 memoir, Willie admitted that “Half a Man” was “one of my stranger songs. It’s about a guy who considers what it would be like, in the name of lost love, to start losing body parts...This wasn’t exactly a song that made you want to dance.”[5] The song was released as a single but only made it to number 25, with Allsup recalling, "Half the country stations wouldn't play 'Half a Man' because they thought it was morbid."[2] Years later Nelson would record the song as two different duets with Merle Haggard and George Jones.

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic
[6]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Roly Poly"Fred Rose1:50
2."Half a Man"Willie Nelson2:25
3."Lonely Little Mansion"Nelson2:23
4."The Last Letter"Rex Griffin2:55
5."Second Fiddle"Roger Miller2:24
6."Take My Word"Nelson1:50
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."
Don Davis
2:20
4."Way You See Me"Nelson2:55
5."Things I Might Have Been"
2:13
6."Home Motel"Nelson2:24

Personnel

Partial credits.[2][7][8]

Technical
  • Eddie Brackett – engineer

The chorus of “Half a Man” was accentuated by female backing singers whose names are currently not known.[9]

References

  1. ^ Nelson & Ritz 2015, p. 156.
  2. ^ a b c Patoski 2008, p. 140.
  3. ^ Nelson & Ritz 2015, pp. 153–154.
  4. ^ Nelson & Ritz 2015, p. 155.
  5. ^ Nelson & Ritz 2015, pp. 154–155.
  6. ^ AllMusic Review
  7. ^ Scherman, Tony, Backbeat: The Earl Palmer Story, foreword by Wynton Marsalis, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 1999 p. 176
  8. ^ Thomson 2012, p. 67.
  9. ^ Rolling Stone staff 2010.

Bibliography

  • Thomson, Graeme (2012). Willie Nelson: The Outlaw. Virgin Books.
    ISBN 978-0-7535-1184-8
    .
  • Nelson, Willie; Ritz, David (2015). It's A Long Story: My Life. Little, Brown and Company.
    ISBN 9780316339315
    .
  • Patoski, Joe Nick (2008). Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. Hachette Digital.
    ISBN 978-0-316-01778-7
    .
  • Rolling Stone staff (2010). "Song Stories. "Half a Man" Willie Nelson, 1963". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
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