Willie Nelson and Family

Willie Nelson and Family
Studio album by Willie Nelson
Released	1971
Studio	RCA Victor Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Genre	Country
Length	32:18
Label	RCA Records
Producer	Felton Jarvis
Willie Nelson chronology
Laying My Burdens Down (1970) Willie Nelson and Family (1971) Yesterday's Wine (1971)

Willie Nelson and Family is the twelfth studio album by American country music singer Willie Nelson, released in 1971.

Background

Although Nelson continued to be frustrated with the production and poor sales of his albums at

The collection contains a mix of covers, such as the Hank Williams classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", and original compositions, including the prophetic "What Can You Do to Me Now?", a forlorn ballad Nelson wrote with Hank Cochran in December 1970 just days before his house burned down on December 23.^[2] The Texan later quipped, "Even though the title – 'What Can You Do to Me Now?' – seemed to invite trouble, the story was really about getting strong in the face of adversity."^[3] Nelson also wrote "I'm a Memory", which was released as a single and reached number 28 on the country singles chart. Willie Nelson and Family also contains Nelson's first cover of "Today I Started Loving You Again", written by Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens. Haggard later appeared at Nelson's first Dripping Springs Picnic in 1974 and recorded several duet albums with Nelson. In his 2015 autobiography Nelson wrote:

Also sang Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again"...I met him when he was playing bass with Wynn Stewart at the Nashville Nevada Club in Las Vegas...Merle was another one of those rugged individualists who, like me, was trying to make sense of all the nonsense in the music business. We became buddies for life."^[4]

Nelson, who covered

AllMusic: “Over the years, Nelson has shown that he sometimes looks at relationships differently than the average songwriter (such as ‘Crazy’), with a little more thought and from new perspectives. After all, not everyone's life is moon, June, and honeymoon. Two of the finest examples of the Willie way are on this album: ‘I'm A Memory’ and, especially, ‘What Can You Do to Me Now?’

Release History

Like most of Nelson's albums from RCA, this was never issued on tape. In addition, as of 2023, this album is one of three original Willie Nelson RCA albums that have not been reissued in its original form (the others are 1967's "'The Party's Over' and Other Great Willie Nelson Songs" and 1970's "Laying My Burdens Down".

However, all ten of the album's songs were issued on the 1998 box set "Nashville Was The Roughest...", an eight-disc collection of the songs Nelson recorded for RCA and Monument Records from July 1964 to April 1972. In addition, some of the album's songs, such as "Fire and Rain" and "I'm A Memory", saw popularity after Nelson's rise to prominence.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link

Track listing

Personnel

• vocals
• Glen Spreen - arrangements

Charts

References

Bibliography

• Nelson, Willie; Ritz, David (2015). It's A Long Story: My Life. Little, Brown and Company.
  ISBN 9780316339315
  .